Accepting the Theory of Anthropogenic Global Warming–And Then Doing Something About It

My mother asked me the other day, “Do you think more people are getting on board with global warming?” I replied in the affirmative, because of a few factors:

• At a slow but steady rate, the few remaining deniers in the ranks of climate science are folding their tents.  As I pointed out to my mom, “This is what scientists do for a living.  They don’t cling on to ideas for which there is no evidence; they don’t have personal attachments to theories; when they see new data, they draw new conclusions.

• The phenomena that support the theory of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) are becoming more obvious and more robust every month.  As shown here, we’re seeing melting in the arctic that wasn’t expected until 2090–a full 70 years from now.

The real issue, of course, is what we do with this new-found acceptance.  There is no precedent in human history by which a population came together to deal with an existential threat. This is going to take work.