What can I say? We’ve destroyed the viability of the planet to sustain our population for at least 1000 years according to ‘conservative’ scientific estimates of the effects of carbon dioxide- even if we contain it at current levels. It is no longer a question of reversing climate change- we’re going to need to learn how to live with it including massive droughts that last thousands of years and ocean levels rising at least 3 feet.

I’m not being alarmist- read the article. This is science not speculation.

So much has happened since I first started Burner Trouble in 2005. Frustrated by the total lack of movement on climate change, the idiocy of the Bush administration and their religious adherance to blocking science, enriching oil companies and denying climate change, I started writing my personal responses to these topics. I’m reminded that nearly all of the original 9/11 terrorists were Saudis, not Iraqis or Afghanis, and how we whisked the Saudi royalty out of the country even though there was a ban in international air travel. Of how we started a war to get our hands on a major oil producing country then totally failed to actually repair any infrastructure for producing that oil, spending hundreds of billions in the process for which there is no accounting. And how the company responsible for this mess was once managed by the ex-Vice President of the US.

It goes on and on- until yesterday. Today there is a new government, a new awareness and a new determination and it is bipartisan among the citizens. I have little faith that the Republican politicians get it though as they are already obstructing and delaying for purely partisan reasons. Their constituency does not want them to do this- polling shows widespread support for Obama amongst those who did not vote for him.

I stopped blogging regularly earlier this year. News coverage of climate change and energy issues became much more widespread. Things like the coal ash problem were not buried in the back pages, instead journalists did journalism and discovered that the Tennessee Valley Authority, the EPA and the coal industry had been hiding or minimizing the dangers of the 1800 coal ash dumps nationwide. This was encouraging.

So should I blog? I’m still deciding. I need a focus that excites me and I’m still thinking that over. But change has come.

From the Guardian:

“It’s worth reading the transcript of the encounter, where it becomes

clearer how bizarre much of what she said was. Here, for example, is how she

responded to Biden’s comments about how the middle class has been

short-changed during the Bush administration, and how McCain will continue

Bush’s policies:

Say it ain’t so, Joe, there you go again pointing backwards again. You

preferenced [sic] your whole comment with the Bush administration. Now

doggone it, let’s look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do

for them in the future. You mentioned education, and I’m glad you did. I

know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for

30 years, and god bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right? … My brother,

who I think is the best schoolteacher in the year, and here’s a shout-out to

all those third graders at Gladys Wood Elementary School, you get extra

credit for watching the debate.”

Due to warming and deforestation, a new study finds that mass extinctions are taking place with up to 25% of land mammals and 33% of sea mammals disappearing during this century. Biodiversity is essential to maintaining a healthy bio-system and a genetic pool that can support continued evolution. The loss of these species will have incalculable effects on humanity.

We’re destroying this planet as fast as we can and we have a vice-presidential candidate who does not believe in science.

Newsflash: God is not going to bail us out.