Catastrophic Climate Change is Likely for Future Generations

If we continue burning fossil fuels at the current rate for the rest this century the resulting climate change would likely be catastrophic for our civilization.  There are no scientifically credible ideas that refute this fact.  And even though we may have already passed the point where meaningful steps to reduce CO2 emissions would prevent catastrophic climate change, there is a chance that if we take immediate steps to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions we can buy enough time for future generations to stabilize our climate before it becomes inhospitable to civilization as we know it.

The purpose of this site is to provide the information that shows why global warming and climate change pose such serious problems.

Global warming can be defined as the increase in the Earth’s average temperature due to the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases, particularly CO2.  And because the burning of fossil fuels is responsible for most (if not all) of the increase in atmospheric CO2, humans are responsible for most (if not all) of the temperature increase. Therefore the most important climate science question is “How much will the Earth’s average oceanic and atmospheric temperatures increase this century as the atmospheric CO2 increases?” Using computer models, climate scientists expect that “If emissions continue on their present trajectory, without either technological or regulatory abatement, then the best estimate is that global average temperature will warm a further 2.6 to 4.8 °C (4.7 to 8.6 °F) by the end of the century“ ( http://dels.nas.edu/resources/static-assets/exec-office-other/climate-change-full.pdf). Not only is this estimated temperature range corroborated based on paleoclimate data but also there is no credible scientific model that shows a likelihood that the temperature increase will be less.  The next most important question is “what are the likely impacts on the Earth of an additional 2.6 °C increase in average temperature?” In addition to at least 40 feet of sea level rise and the dying of a very large percentage of oceanic life (due to ocean acidification), there be greatly increased incidences of drought, floods, and wildfires, a large reduction of agricultural yields, large negative health impacts, etc.  In other words, if we continue to burn fossil fuels at the current rate the changes to the Earth’s climate will very likely be catastrophic for our civilization even if the temperature increase is the lowest expected.  And again there is no credible model that shows that this is not the case.  It is way past time to debate whether or not global warming is occurring and how severe (or not) the resulting changes to the climate will be.  Instead we need to be debating both how we can best reduce CO2 emissions (to keep the warming as small as possible in order to avoid catastrophic climate change) and how we can best prepare ourselves for a warming world.

There are a number of people and organizations that are trying to make the public think that there are still reasoned debates on climate change and global warming. These fall into the following general (and overlapping) categories: (1) those that profit from fossil fuel extraction; (2) those that these organizations fund; (3) those who are against government regulations (since taking any serious action on reducing CO2 emissions requires a large government intervention); and (4) those who rely on the first three for their opinions.  All of these people and organizations benefit from the status quo and many are using both misinformation and disinformation to mislead the public on the dangers of global warming and climate change. And to reiterate, the “skeptics” and “deniers” have no scientifically credible ideas to refute that fact that if we continue burning fossil fuels at the current rate for the rest this century the resulting climate change would likely be catastrophic for our civilization.