Copenhagen climate deal not on track for 2°C
a website to keep an eye on the pulse of copenhagen and the progress we aren't making [link]

So our interest wanes and our understanding drops. We as a species find our pocketbooks of more concern than our planet. We would much rather believe in the illusion than face reality. much rather take action for instant gratification then save our future. Shutter the window from the storm and bury our heads in the sands of fantasy.

positive thoughts and it will stop.

the polls. God damn i hope they lie. this is probably some of the most bizarre depressing statistics i have had the displeasure of reading. enough so that it took me a couple of weeks to face them in the mirror.

canada We keep electing a government who doesn't even believe climate change is real need i say more (no public opinion polls on topic that i have seen)

america: among 1,500 adults reached on cell phones and landlines, fewer respondents also see global warming as a very serious problem; 35% say that today, down from 44% in April 2008.

The survey also points to a decline in the proportion of Americans who say global temperatures are rising as a result of human activity. Just 36% say that currently, down from 47% last year. [link]

32% say that the U.S. should set its own standards.

more than half (55%) say they haven’t heard about“cap and trade” legislation being considered in Congress.


Britain: 52 percent of people don't believe that climate change will affect them and 18 percent don't believe it will even affect their children.

a survey last year found that only 1 in 3 people believed that climate change was due mainly to human activities.

a undertaken last weekend, found that only two in five people in Britain accept as an established scientific fact that global warming is largely man-made.

A Met Office survey conducted in August found that the proportion of people saying they knew little or nothing about climate change had grown from 32 per cent in 2006 to 47 per cent.

Australia: a recent poll found that the topic had dropped to seventh on a list of foreign policy concerns, despite a decade long drought and multiple bush fires. It was ranked No. 1 in 2007, when the country finally ratified the Kyoto Protocol.

The issue is still seen as very important by 56 percent of people -- far higher than in Britain -- but that itself is down 19 points from 2007.

the world: Less than half of those surveyed, or 47 per cent, said they were prepared to make personal lifestyle changes to reduce carbon emissions, down from 58 per cent last year.

Only 37 per cent said they were willing to spend "extra time" on the effort, an eight-point drop.

And only one in five respondents - or 20 per cent - said they'd spend extra money to reduce climate change. That's down from 28 per cent a year ago.
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I believe James Lovelock is right, even if I believe he wasn't completely right to begin with (since 2004 J. Lovelock has been convinced that global warming had reached the point of unstoppable). I do think we could have stopped it, if our action was the most ambitious and aggressive that we could humanly do. However unable to even set a global consensus on binding targets (that are far too low) and make sacrifices that are meager and inadequate, we will never manage the changes that are necessary.

So it is too late.

and now James Lovelock could be of some help in figuring out where to go from here:

"Lovelock believes global warming is now irreversible, and that nothing can prevent large parts of the planet becoming too hot to inhabit, or sinking underwater, resulting in mass migration, famine and epidemics. Britain is going to become a lifeboat for refugees from mainland Europe, so instead of wasting our time on wind turbines we need to start planning how to survive. To Lovelock, the logic is clear. The sustainability brigade are insane to think we can save ourselves by going back to nature; our only chance of survival will come not from less technology, but more.

Nuclear power, he argues, can solve our energy problem - the bigger challenge will be food. "Maybe they'll synthesise food. I don't know. Synthesising food is not some mad visionary idea; you can buy it in Tesco's, in the form of Quorn. It's not that good, but people buy it. You can live on it." But he fears we won't invent the necessary technologies in time, and expects "about 80%" of the world's population to be wiped out by 2100. Prophets have been foretelling Armageddon since time began, he says. "But this is the real thing."

"There have been seven disasters since humans came on the earth, very similar to the one that's just about to happen. I think these events keep separating the wheat from the chaff. And eventually we'll have a human on the planet that really does understand it and can live with it properly. That's the source of my optimism."

What would Lovelock do now, I ask, if he were me? He smiles and says: "Enjoy life while you can. Because if you're lucky it's going to be 20 years before it hits the fan."
[link]

James Lovelock's scientific credentials are impeccable. Over a long career he's made many discoveries of global significance, including the fact that cold and flu viruses are transmitted by physical contact rather than through the air, and that small mammals such as hamsters can be frozen solid for hours or days, then defrosted and returned to life. As a maker of scientific instruments, he is without peer. One of his instruments used to measure air pollution is still in widespread use today; indeed it made detection of the hole in the ozone layer possible. Lovelock's reputation as one of the world's most respected scientists was reinforced in 2006, when he received the Royal Geological Society's Wollaston medal. It's the highest commendation given in geology, and its previous recipients include Louis Agassiz (the discoverer of the ice age) and Charles Darwin.
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I am still hoping that The Age of stupid will be available in Canada at some point. [link]

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I had many nightmares in my childhood about catastrophic events and the end of civilization. I used to think it was just another irrational fear manifesting itself in the mania that is childhood. some kids were afraid of the dark, i was afraid of disaster and the apocalypse. It seems i may get a chance to use those silent skills acquired through dream training.

Well as the header says
enjoy.

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entertaining side note:
Shrinking brains
[link]

‘What do we need these brains for? We've got iPods,' Hawks joked. But often we're too close to the situation to second-guess what natural selection is doing to us. ‘Efficiency demands that the brain should be smaller,' Hawks said. ‘Maybe we got better with smaller brains, but I gotta tell you that maybe we're getting dumber. How can we know?'”