the dogcatcher pledge

Around sunup today, as I was lying in bed pondering the nature of reality and sipping on my stone-cold cup of Folger's Instant, a brilliant idea came to me. BRILLIANT! I call it 'The Dogcatcher Pledge':

'I pledge that I won't vote for any Republican at any level-- from dogcatcher or state legislator right on up to the presidency-- until the Republican party acknowledges the reality of man-made climate change and makes a serious proposal to deal with it.'

If we could get 4-5 million people to sign this, the Republicans would sit up and take notice. And if we could get 10 or 20 million people to sign it, they would in fact start losing elections, at all levels -- even ones they would otherwise have won. This would also have the effect of moving this issue to the fore in our national politics. Although polls now show a solid majority believe climate change is happening, we're causing it, and we should do something about it, it still polls at or near the bottom of people's priorities. This could change that.

the sky is REALLY falling this time

The scariest scenario I've come across yet.  The author, unbelievably enough, holds the Milton Friedman chair in economics at the University of Chicago.

What if we really did 'Burn It All'?  'The use of all reserves and resources would lead to a total increase of 16.2 degrees. Today’s climate and planet would very likely be unrecognizable.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/09/upshot/if-we-dig-out-all-our-fossil-fuels-heres-how-hot-we-can-expect-it-to-get.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0

the sky IS falling

from the Tokyo Climate Center:  Global average temperature variations for March, stretching back over a century.

http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/gwp/temp/mar_wld.html

two thirds? really?

According to this poll, two-thirds of Americans support a revenue-neutral carbon tax.  Really?

http://www.carbontax.org/blogarchives/2015/04/15/carbon-tax-polling-milestone-23-support-if-revenue-neutral/

the sky IS falling

'The Amazon was responsible for one-fifth to one-quarter of carbon sequestered on land, so any decline in its efficiency as a carbon sink was of consequence to efforts to combat climate change.'

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/18/amazons-trees-remove-third-less-carbon-decade-ago-emissions?CMP=EMCENVEML1631