The Future is Here

I continue to be alarmed at the disrespect that many of my colleagues pay to their climate science colleagues, even now, as the once green pastures of New South Wales turn to dust and atmospheric CO2 levels rise above anything they would believe possible.



On the news yesterday I heard an interview with a local astronomer, who felt it necessary to defend funding for science at a time when food and commodity prices were rising. The unfortunate reality is that we cannot expect this problem to go away. You might think it unlikely. Look at the data yourself. Water shortages and forced migrations have always caused economic and political tension. They have never happened on the scale that they soon will. It's a pretty simple story, really. It's time to think about what you take for granted: the fresh water, long showers, luxury items, enough food to eat.

Yes, people like me are called alarmist. I've been hearing that for a long time. That's why it's all so depressing. We live at a time when pretty well everybody on earth needs to change their life. And they're just not doing it.