I totally agree with this.

I'm careful not to be too pessimistic about it, or fearmongering, or flat out "give up", but the accumulation of extreme weather has been predicted for decades, and I see it happening right now.

Let's hope we can still turn this around.

I cannot help but be amused that we're talking ourselves around to the POV that we're ruining the earth as a people.

I seem to remember recently quoting Revelation 11:18 and asking were we ruining the earth [post #9956, 'Faith & Religion Megathread'] and folks were extremely reluctant to get off the fence.

So let me ask again: As we seem to be agreed that we are ruining the earth, is the fulfillment of Revelation 11:18 imminent?

What happened to:

I figure that "prophesy" is about as much a stretch as "You will meet a tall, dark stranger some day" considering how long and in so many places and times Mankind has "defecated in the kitchen".

OK, ntubski, touché. I'd take it over there if I expected any sense out of folks.

I cannot agree with a view that we are ruining the earth as people. No single individual can contribute enough change to the planet to ruin it without an extraordinary effort. All of together can, but even that takes extraordinary coordination. It takes a dirty technology that is widely used that creates more problem than any single person or group of people to really ruin things. Alas, our capitalist society has created SEVERAL examples.

Capitalism has proven far to powerful and useful a force to dispense with, and we can view results in several societies that have attempted to eliminate it. What WE have is a capitalism that has not been controlled or restrained adequately, not monitored properly, to prevent it from destroying life on this planet. The first articles on human influence on climate and the potential results are not new, they were published between 1890 and 1920. They were ignored because "money". The solution is not to eliminate capitalism, but to monitor and constrain it to prevent disaster. In the current case, leverage it to save the world form the disaster it has created.

There is nothing preventing our leveraging current and future technology and the power of a capitalist economy to save the world except will. Have we the will to act, and act in a responsible and effective manner that will have results extending beyond our own lives? While I believe we do, I can certainly understand why some express doubt.

No one said it would be easy.

It isn't Capitalism. Socialist countries drive cars, burn coal, etc., too. It isn't Money since money is merely symbolic of work and value. It's Greed. Greed honors no borders, whether physical or idealogical. There are people who have no limitations whatsoever since, to them, there is always More and I've met several who actually wholeheartedly believe "He who dies with the most toys wins". I consider that a fittingly childish view and metric for quality of character.

^ So true.

When it comes to bitcoin mining, can Alberta become the new China?

https://financialpost.com/fp-finance...-the-new-china

I am ashamed to be Canadian.

Not that it's my worry, (raining every day here in Ireland) but it seems Global warming is coming home to the Excited States.
western-states-face-first-federal-water-cuts

Weather in the USA is a larger picture. It is fed by many factors from many zones, partly because the USA is so large. Ireland is smaller, and most of its weather is fed by two ocean currents and one major jetstream. The effects of climate change are not equally visible everywhere, there are areas of greater and lessor effect. Currently the drier states of the USA are seeing more effect, as are the states subject to ocean fed storms. The rest are seeing changes, but less disaster. Ireland and the UK will see major changes when the Gulf Stream system collapses.

There is nowhere that can escape the changes. Eventually, if we allow it to continue, everywhere will experience disaster.

True. When you look accross our latitude, you see Canada, Siberia & places like that.

The island status protects us from the heat, because we are surrounded by sea. But a lot of the midlands is low, and may flood the centre.

The Gulf stream isn't exactly going off, but instead of performing neat clockwise circles in the North Atlantic like it used to, it's more West --> East, and can go over us, South of us, or North of us. Instead of basically all weather coming from the South West, We are getting weather systems from the West, NorthWest, NorthEast, SouthWest & SouthEast, with the occasional weather system from the other cardinal compass points.

Recent studies of the flow indicate a slowing predicting a total collapse of the current. The problem is that this has never happened before, and they cannot predict if the collapse might happen next year, or next century. My hope is that we can reverse the climate change, and that will restore the gulf stream current. If it DOES collapse, that will be a widespread disaster that will impact every corner of the world: directly or indirectly.

Yes, even back in 2006 this was known Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" had a section on the the-ocean-conveyor/

A whole lot goes wrong when that stops, but nobody knows when. A whole lot of species die (they are dying anyhow) but it's blindingly obvious now and everyone carries on.

The gulf stream did switch off briefly in the late 16th century. The result was a mini European ice age that lasted for a couple of centuries. The Thames froze solid in winter and fairs were held on the ice. Shakespeare tells us that "milk comes frozen home in the pail" as if that were a normal winter occurrence. And then it switched on again. And no one knows why.