At the 20th anniversary of this record it is more than a little troubling to admit that when I wrote it I was apprehensive of the thought that it might already be too late and now twenty years later hardly anything has changed; except for the worse.
Back then there may have been some reason to be skeptical about the research on climate change although few rational and non-biased people felt so, but now that this Fact (italics mine) can still be viewed as a debate by some, seems incredible.
Last year something happened that I very naively thought would end the "debate". Richard Muller (a well known scientist and skeptic on global warming) whose funding was provided by the Koch brothers conceded that his findings were consistent with the consensus that human activity was indeed causing global warming. Well, unfortunately the "debate" still rages. But this particular story is very interesting.
Last year something happened that I very naively thought would end the "debate". Richard Muller (a well known scientist and skeptic on global warming) whose funding was provided by the Koch brothers conceded that his findings were consistent with the consensus that human activity was indeed causing global warming. Well, unfortunately the "debate" still rages. But this particular story is very interesting.
First the Koch brothers funded research to be done by one of the few high profile and generally well respected scientists that is (was) still skeptical about human activity causing global warming (a downright diabolical maneuver) and then Muller ends up convinced by his own research to renounce his skepticism. You can only imagine this is not the result the Koch brothers expected or desired, and yet still………there is a debate.
Though there is much good info you can find on the subject these days Here is some of the best info you can find on the subject.
***
Though there is much good info you can find on the subject these days Here is some of the best info you can find on the subject.
***
The cover of Electric Babylon is pretty much a self explanatory symbol. My own thoughts on the cover were a little more involved and they were as follows.
I don't fully understand how the light bulb comes on when I flip the switch, but the fact that it does is tangible evidence that there are people who do understand how it works even if their explanation of it is only partially comprehensible to me. Therefore it is not unreasonable to trust that there are people who do understand how to make it work and that these same people could also understand how the waste from the power we are generating is damaging the atmosphere, even though I don't fully understand it. I mean it's easy enough to imagine what would happen in a few years if you threw all your garbage in the basement, it wouldn't be long before the whole house smelled like the basement. With climate change we have the same thing just on a much larger scale, or we could just debate ourselves right out of existence.
I don't fully understand how the light bulb comes on when I flip the switch, but the fact that it does is tangible evidence that there are people who do understand how it works even if their explanation of it is only partially comprehensible to me. Therefore it is not unreasonable to trust that there are people who do understand how to make it work and that these same people could also understand how the waste from the power we are generating is damaging the atmosphere, even though I don't fully understand it. I mean it's easy enough to imagine what would happen in a few years if you threw all your garbage in the basement, it wouldn't be long before the whole house smelled like the basement. With climate change we have the same thing just on a much larger scale, or we could just debate ourselves right out of existence.
"I'm not a scientist" (or a Republican), I can't explain how the light bulb works, but I have explained what's going to happen if we don't see the light. That explanation is called Electric Babylon.
Really I could go on and on about this subject - it has haunted me for years, in fact it's been hard for me to let it go so as to just simply broach other issues. But anyway; I will let it go here, and try to move on in hopes that we may figure some way out of this - and it is possible, I mean even if worse comes to worst we still might find a way out. Awareness is starting to pick up even amongst the ones duped and fallen prey to misinformation and downright lies. It's going to take a lot at this probably irreversible point, and some, perhaps many, may suffer greatly, but human life will probably continue on to a distant future that we facing this jeopardy could not even dream of. But it is vital that we accept the fact that it is in jeopardy, if not, is there really anything worth saving?
M.M.
August 2013
