The Daily Populous Thursday September 24th, 2020 evening edition
Authored by nytimes.com and submitted by druizzz

America is now under siege by climate change in ways that scientists have warned about for years. But there is a second part to their admonition: Decades of growing crisis are already locked into the global ecosystem and cannot be reversed.

This means the kinds of cascading disasters occurring today — drought in the West fueling historic wildfires that send smoke all the way to the East Coast, or parades of tropical storms lining up across the Atlantic to march destructively toward North America — are no longer features of some dystopian future. They are the here and now, worsening for the next generation and perhaps longer, depending on humanity’s willingness to take action.

“I’ve been labeled an alarmist,” said Peter Kalmus, a climate scientist in Los Angeles, where he and millions of others have inhaled dangerously high levels of smoke for weeks. “And I think it’s a lot harder for people to say that I’m being alarmist now.”

Last month, before the skies over San Francisco turned a surreal orange, Death Valley reached 130 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest temperature ever measured on the planet. Dozens of people have perished from the heat in Phoenix, which in July suffered its hottest month on record, only to surpass that milestone in August.

manwithavandotcom on September 23rd, 2020 at 23:38 UTC »

When pics of earth start looking like the surface of Venus we should probably start to pay attention.

Express_Hyena on September 23rd, 2020 at 22:23 UTC »

It depends how much we do. Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart said, “We aren’t passengers on spaceship earth. We’re the crew.”

NASA climatologist Dr James Hansen says that becoming an active volunteer with this group is the most impactful thing an individual can do for climate change. Dr Katherine Hayhoe, climatologist and lead author of the US National Climate Assessment, agrees. For other expert opinion on how individuals can make a difference, see here.

Here on Reddit, r/ClimateOffensive and r/CitizensClimateLobby are two subs that are specifically focused on actions we can take on climate change.

DeltaBeaner on September 23rd, 2020 at 20:54 UTC »

when younger, angrier, drunker me said he wanted to watch the world burn he didn't think they'd actually do it the absolute madmen.