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Like burning art masterpieces to cook dinner

Bite”Destroying a tropical rainforest and other species-rich ecosystems is like burning all the paintings of the Louvre to cook dinner."— Edward O. Wilson, the "father of biodiversity."

My great, great grandchildren won't let me sleep

Category:Risk, Stakes & Probability

Bite

"It's 3:23 in the morning, and I'm awake
because my great, great, grandchildren won't let me sleep.
My great, great, grandchildren ask me in dreams
what did you do, while the planet was plundered?
what did you do, when the earth was unravelling? ...

Category:Risk, Stakes & Probability

Bite"Mother Nature is just chemistry, biology and physics. That's all she is. You cannot sweet-talk her. You cannot spin her. You cannot tell her that the oil companies say climate change is a hoax. No, Mother Nature is going to do whatever chemistry, biology and physics dictate" "Mother Nature alwa...

Category:Risk, Stakes & Probability

Bite"Nature favours those organisms which leave the environment in better shape for their progeny to survive" — James Lovelock

Headed for a cliff, stepping on the pedal

Category:Risk, Stakes & Probability

Bite"We're headed toward this cliff, and instead of taking our foot off the gas we're stepping on the pedal."—Scott Mandia.

With even 1% risk of catastrophe, we buy insurance.

Category:Risk, Stakes & Probability

Bite"It’s all a game of odds. We’ve never been here before. We just know two things: one, the CO2 we put into the atmosphere stays there for many years, so it is “irreversible” in real-time (barring some feat of geo-engineering); and two, that CO2 build-up has the potential to unleash “catastrophic” war...

Category:Risk, Stakes & Probability

Bite"The climate system is an angry beast, and we're poking it with sticks."
— Walter Broecker, the climate science pioneer who uncovered the ocean's role in accelerating abrupt climate shifts in the earth's past.

The only big question about this historial moment. . .

Category:Risk, Stakes & Probability

BiteA hundred years from now, looking back, the only question that will appear important about the historical moment in which we now live is the question of whether or not we did anything to arrest climate change.

Everything else—the financial crisis, the life or death of the euro, authorita...

Extreme weather = "sneak preview" of future

Category:Risk, Stakes & Probability

BiteWhile it's hard to know how much global warming contributes to any single weather event, science tells us that we will see more and more extreme weather as the earth warms. Think of today's extreme weather as a "sneak preview" of what lies ahead on our current path.

Driving in fog toward a cliff, with bad brakes...

Category:Risk, Stakes & Probability

Bite"We're driving in a car with bad brakes in a fog and heaing for a cliff. We know for sure now that the cliff is out there, we just don't know exactly where it is. Prudence would suggest that we should start putting on the brakes."— John Holdren.

Jesus said, 'Love (not poison!) your neighbor'

Category:Risk, Stakes & Probability

Bite"If you don't know how to keep poisons out of somebody's water, or their air, how can you say you love your neighbor?" —Christian Environmentalist Fred Van Dyke.

Tipping point: Earth as a school bus, your kids inside

Category:Risk, Stakes & Probability

BiteA school bus goes up a hill, then down. The hilltop is the tipping point. Earth is the bus, but with no driver, just quarreling teenagers, called governments. And no brakes.

Category:Risk, Stakes & Probability

BiteTake two breaths. Your second breath comes from phytoplankton, who produce 1/2 the world's oxygen. One more reason to protect oceans.

It's like a big tsunami, headed our way...

Category:Risk, Stakes & Probability

BiteClimate change is like a big tsunami, far at sea but headed our way. To get our families "off the beach" and to safety, we need to act now. If we wait until we can see wave breaking, it will be too late.

Climate Russian Roulette: But what's in the loaded chamber?

Category:Risk, Stakes & Probability

BiteContinued release of greenhouse gases is like playing "Russian Roulette with the climate, hoping that the future will hold no unpleasant surprises. No one knows what lies in the active chamber of the gun."

-- Oceangrapher, Wallace Broecker, 1987.

Category:Risk, Stakes & Probability

BiteLiving with increased CO2 in the atmosphere is like a rain shower on the highway. It doesn't necessarily cause a crash but it increases the possibility of one and is likely to make any accident more severe.

Earth's climate is an ornery beast...that overreacts

Category:Risk, Stakes & Probability

Bite"The paleoclimate record shouts out to us that, far from being self-stabilising, the Earth's climate system is an ornery beast which overreacts to even small nudges." -- Reknowned paleoclimatologist, Wallace Broeker

Waking the "Sleeping Giants" of abrupt change

Category:Risk, Stakes & Probability

BiteThe longer global warming continues, the greater the risk of "waking the sleeping giants"—major feedbacks such as ice sheet collapse, methane "burps," or ecosystem collapse—that could ignite abrupt or runaway warming beyond our control.

Would you argue with your doctor over a heart condition?

Category:Risk, Stakes & Probability

BiteSome people say ‘When you are sure about climate change, then we will do something about it.’ Suppose your doctor says ‘Well, I am very concerned about your heart condition. I think you should be on a low cholesterol diet and exercise.’ Would anybody say to their doctor ‘If you can't tell me pre...

"We're entitled to every damn thing on this planet..."

Category:Risk, Stakes & Probability

Bite"There is this long, wonderful history of the human race written in blood. We have this tendency to just take what we want. And that's how we treat the natural world as well. There's this sense of we're here, we're big, we've got the guns, we've got the technology, therefore we're entitled to every ...

Risk, Stakes & Probability: All Listings

Like burning art masterpieces to cook dinner

My great, great grandchildren won't let me sleep

"Mother Nature always bats last..."

How to survive as a species...

Headed for a cliff, stepping on the pedal

With even 1% risk of catastrophe, we buy insurance.

An angry beast , and we're poking it with sticks.

The only big question about this historial moment. . .

Extreme weather = "sneak preview" of future

Driving in fog toward a cliff, with bad brakes...

Jesus said, 'Love (not poison!) your neighbor'

Tipping point: Earth as a school bus, your kids inside

For your second breath, thank plankton

It's like a big tsunami, headed our way...

Climate Russian Roulette: But what's in the loaded chamber?

Slow down, you'll have an accident!

Earth's climate is an ornery beast...that overreacts

Waking the "Sleeping Giants" of abrupt change

Would you argue with your doctor over a heart condition?

"We're entitled to every damn thing on this planet..."