Short-Term Action Required To Avoid Long-Term Climate Damage

The researchers focused on three possible consequences of global warming, reflecting a range of likelihoods and potential for disruption: the destruction of coral reefs, the potential rise of sea levels caused by melting of an Antarctic ice sheet and the shutdown of large-scale ocean currents.

They found that if aggressive measures are taken by 2010, maintaining the ocean currents is "likely," but saving the coral reefs is "probably not feasible" and preventing the ice-sheet melting is "plausible, but by no means certain."

"The Bush Administration regards large climate changes as inevitable and proposes adaptation as the main response," said Princeton geoscientist Michael Oppenheimer who co-wrote the report with Brian O'Neill of Brown University. "But some climate changes are so disruptive that avoiding them through emissions reduction is the only sensible alternative.

Let's look at it this way: the global climate is like a car that sits near the edge of a cliff. Unfortunately, there's no way to tell either (a) how close to the edge, or (b) how easily the car will move when we push it (add more CO2 to the atmosphere).

The evidence around us shows that we're pretty close to the edge. Whether it's a foot or a hundred yards is debatable, but no one questions that we're closer than -- say -- a mile.

How easily the car moves depends on the answers to two big questions: (1) what state the car is in, and (2) what the terrain is like. If the car sits parallel to the edge, in gear, and with the emergency brake on, ten strong men pushing hard won't move it far toward the edge, even if the terrain slopes down to the edge. On the other hand, if it's aimed at the edge, in neutral with the brakes off, even a non-strapping fellow such as myself could push it over without much trouble. If the car were teetering on the edge of the abyss, my daughter Ella could easily give it a little shove in the right direction and send it into oblivion.   

3:39:37 PM  comment []    

Carbonated Potato Salad Considered Harmful

Mistake!

We were over at my brother's house, eating brats and having a nice summery dinner.

Robert's wife, Tanya took one bite, spat it out, and said: "Ugh! The potato salad's gone bad."

Ooops!

But it didn't seem to have affected me; not until about 24 hours later. Then my stomach started clenching up. To shorten the story, I spent a great deal of time in the bathroom for a while. I checked the web and decided that yes, it was probably food poisoning. Then I spent about an hour alternating between pacing, moaning, and curled in the fetal position. Sondra did a wonderful job trying to get a doctor to call me back. Our primary-care doc's on-call doc didn't call. My GI doc's on-call doc didn't call. I have my primary care doc's cell phone number, but I had written it down wrong.

Eventually, we did get the right number for Dr. Vega and Sondra drove me over to his house. The diagnosis? Food poisoning. He prescribed some painkillers, but the 24hr. pharmacies in town didn't carry them. Luckily, the knife had been removed from my guts by this time and I was able to get some sleep anyway.

This morning, I feel wiped out, but I'm not in pain. Phew!

Interestingly enough, the carbonated flavor was pretty good, if a bit too tangy. I wonder if food scientists could get the same results with more gut-friendly bugs?   

11:04:31 AM  comment []