How Bad Is the Air in Beijing?
2013 saw a significant uptick in the amount of mainstream news coverage of climate change – normally in connection with pollution and other environmental issues. Here’s a CBS news clip in which Charlie Rose covers the air in Beijing, recently measured to be 20 times dirtier than “safe” levels. According to the report, China consumes almost half the world’s coal. Officials closed freeways due to inadequate visibility. Another 15 years of unchanging behavior could put the world to a point where we would be unable to correct climate issues, even if we wanted to.
While an increase in awareness of the issue is most certainly a good thing, I have to say that I’m always amazed when mainstream news shows do this and then go on to say something like, “And now let’s go to Jerry Martucci in sports….Jerry, what’s the status of the Denver quarterback’s pulled hamstring?”
The bad news is that we’re baking and choking the planet; the good news is that it’s not happening in time to cause a problem for football fans.
As they used to say, “The sky’s the limit.” We’re now beginning to experience how true that is in predicted and ominous ways.
Yet, the denial industry is predictably busy at work using the abnormal sub-zero expanse to convince the uninitiated that all is as it should be.
Meanwhile, in reality, that national freezing spell was the result of a Jet Stream made increasingly unstable by the effect of CO2 and methane on the polar ice and the cascade forcing effect that lack of energy reflection has on polar temperatures relative to mid latitude temperatures.
This variance between propaganda and scientific observation is a further important reason why all people who love nature need to say “climate disruption” instead of “global warming” or “climate change.”
The word “warming” inclines people to expect only heat records, and not the unstable and damaging extremes on all margins of weather events – and the word “change” is simply too mild and vague to arouse any concern, and leaves the linguistic door open to the false interpretation that it’s natural.
Say it with me, folks – “Climate Disruption!”