"(Climate Change) is ultimately an argument of humans vs. physics. It is not Republicans vs. Democrats, liberals vs conservatives, or environmentalists vs. industry. This issue is about whether the planet can live compatibly with our complex human brains." - Bill McKibben, climate activist and founder of 350.org

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Source:Bill McKibben speaking at Washington University in St. Louis, MO on November 1, 2012

 

Notes: Too many people think of climate change as just a partisan, divisive, political issue.  However, Climate change is ultimately about creating a way of life that is unsustainable for the future of human civilization (specifically our children and grandchildren).  

In 2010, the Global Footprint Network released the Living Planet Report 2010.  This report stated that "Today humanity uses the equivalent of 1.5 planets to provide the resources we use and absorb our waste. This means it now takes the Earth one year and six months to regenerate what we use in a year."

In the book, The Great Disruption, author Paul Gilding writes on page 52,

"If we start at 140% of capacity in 2009, then twenty-two years takes us to 280% of capacity in 2031 and forty-four years takes us to 560% in 2053.

It is not going to happen. 

Not because it's economically, environmentally, and politically challenging.  Not because we do not want it to happen.  Not because doing so would damage the environment.  It's not going to happen because achieving it would defy the laws of physics, biology, and chemistry or of mathematics.  Those laws are firmly established and are not negotiable."

The planet does not care that we are putting over 30 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.  Similarly, a stove does not care if you put your hand on it when it is hot.  Your hand will get burned from a very hot stove.  When we put billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, we are warning up our atmosphere and our planet.  

This is not politics, it is basic physics.

Image Source: sciencedude.blog.ocregister.com