[ok-sus] Too Late? Why Scientists Say We Should Expect the Worst

[Robert Waldrop]

I've been thinking about this off and on since the message was posted.  Having been at this for a while, it seems to me that more and more Oklahomans are waking up.  I get a lot of spontaeous questions about gardening and energy conservation when I am out and about and people recognize me. This past year, the Oklahoman did quite a bit of coverage of gardening efforts, even the Business section got involved (indeed, one of the best stories about this was in the Business section).  I see stories on tv news about cutting expenses and saving money.  New car sales are down, consumption is easing off, all of this is good.

The ability of the sustainability community to respond to change is also growing.  The food coop, OSN, various other efforts, are moving along at a fast clip.

Will it be enough?  Or too little too late?  No one knows.  So we do what we can, with what we have, where we are.  There is a lot we know, but there is even more that we don't know about all the hyper--complex systems that interact -- both relating to climate and to human structures.

Robert Waldrop, OKC
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Eric Pollard 
  To: Sustainability Issues in Oklahoma 
  Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2008 8:09 PM
  Subject: Re: [ok-sus] Too Late? Why Scientists Say We Should Expect the Worst


  As our good friend Harlan says...

  you don't have to convince any Oklahomans that climate change is "real" or that James Inhofe is a lunatic. Even though we are seeing things now in Oklahoma that are probably due to climate change or global weirding like ice storms.You just have to create a real change in an individuals life that empowers them to do more and bring in one more person, and one more after that.

  For instance, no-till - farmer saves money on fuel and can sell some carbon credits to some rich urban city folk.


  On Fri, Dec 19, 2008 at 9:01 PM, Sylvia Pratt <sjpratt at poncacity.net> wrote:

    The only thing that will make the average Oklahoman open their eyes to the possibility is if it hits them personally in a huge way.   This must impact urban dwellers as well as rural Oklahomans.

    Did they pay any attention to the awful drought of a few years ago?   No.   Did they pay any attention, and draw any conclusions, when Moore and sister communities were nearly wiped out by huge tornados?   Did they pay any attention when rural communites across the middle of the country WERE wiped out (Greensburg, towns in South Dakota and Iowa, etc.)?   

    No.   

    I wonder, sometimes, if it's some of the apocalyptic yearning that seems to make many Americans, including Oklahomans, eager for wholesale death and destruction.   Otherwise, how could they continue to keep their heads stuck deep into the sand?

    Because it sure seems obvious enough to those of us who are actually paying attention...

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  -- 
  Eric Pollard
  SustainUS

  "Let me also say a special word to the delegates from around the world who will gather in Poland next month: your work is vital to the planet. While I won't be president at the time of your meeting and while the United States has only one president at a time, I've asked members of Congress who are attending the conference as observers to report back to me on what they learn there. And once I take office, you can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in these negotiations, and help lead the world toward a new era of global cooperation on climate change."

  - Barack Obama



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