Climate Risks Have Been Underestimated for the Last 20 Years

From AlterNet:

Across two decades and thousands of pages of reports, the world's most authoritative voice on climate science has consistently understated the rate and intensity of climate change and the danger those impacts represent, say a growing number of studies on the topic.

As the latest round of United Nations climate talks in Doha wrap up this week, climate experts warn that the IPCC's failure to adequately project the threats that rising global carbon emissions represent has serious consequences: The IPCC’s overly conservative reading of the science, they say, means governments and the public could be blindsided by the rapid onset of the flooding, extreme storms, drought, and other impacts associated with catastrophic global warming.This conservative bias, say some scientists, could have significant political implications, as reports from the group – the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – influence policy and planning decisions worldwide, from national governments down to local town councils.

And

The drastic decline of summer Arctic sea ice is one recent example: In the 2007 report, the IPCC concluded the Arctic would not lose its summer ice before 2070 at the earliest. But the ice pack has shrunk far faster than any scenario scientists felt policymakers should consider; now researchers say the region could see ice-free summers within 20 years.

Sea-level rise is another. In its 2001 report, the IPCC predicted an annual sea-level rise of less than 2 millimeters per year. But from 1993 through 2006, the oceans actually rose 3.3 millimeters per year, more than 50 percent above that projection.

More here.

Oh great.  So what was going to be happening to our children and grandchildren is now going to be happening to us.  And there's no end in sight.  The government is held hostage by a relatively small band of conservatives who don't believe in science, and not only do they do everything they can to obstruct legislation on the issue, but they and their ilk outside government also spend millions to confuse the population.  That is, we do nothing while things continue to deteriorate.  

We're fucked.  We're really fucked.

I don't know just how bad it's going to get, but I do know it will be bad, worse than anything in living memory.  The economic collapse alone, as hurricanes and droughts and other ills increase in intensity and frequency, will be worse than the Great Depression.  Civilization may not collapse, but people are going to hurt.  And civilization may, indeed, collapse.  I just don't know.  But I do know that, for most, our relatively cushy way of life is coming to an end.  There's just no way we can maintain our level of economic prosperity and comfort under circumstances which we are already beginning to suffer.  It's over.  And we did it to ourselves.  And the ruling establishment is so into itself and its own power that it is just incapable of doing what's needed to stem the tide.

So live for the now.  Fall in love.  Write a novel.  Learn to cook.  Play the guitar.  Call your parents.  Listen to the Beatles.  Watch The Godfather.  Go to Paris.  Shoot some pool.  Drink some wine.  Star gaze.  Read poetry.  We might not be able to do all this in twenty years.  We might not even be alive.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$