Here's another piece of the puzzle:
The acidification of the oceans
I was not very optimistic before and while I did watch the same show, it just made me more pesimistic. I have yet to see anything happening on an appropiately global scale that gives me any hope at all. From what I have seen of denial, inaction and the base refusal to take responsibility, it will just plain be too late by the time people start acting at a level that will produce signifigent change. The fact the models are getting better is good but unless it is used to effect change, all it does is tell us bad news and I don't see the change forth comming
There are just too many people and the "tradgedy of the comons" is in full effect. Few will volunteer for the large decrease in their standard of living for generations to fix these problems. So, the only way to effect real change in this type of senario is by creating consequences by the use of force. We don't have a political structure, at the global level, to create enough consequences fast enough to produce the required changes. Hey, maybe we are creating an enviornment in which nuclear winter is necessary to keep the world alive.
The only real possibility of hope I have is of a incredibly large panedemic (Bird flu x10) that will occur within the next few years. Without the impact of huge numbers of people, nature will rebalance the system. Hopefully, before everything goes tits-up.
