Saturday, January 16, 2016

             COP-21:  NOT EXACTLY THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA

   AT  1 MICRODEGREE AN HOUR , IT MAY
TAKE 80  GENERATIONS OF FROGS
TO  BOIL A POT OF WATER 
Near-identical post- COP 21 pep talks in  ScienceThe Nation, The Guardian, Nature,  Grist  Mother Jones testify that  enthusiasm  for  the  party  line remains compulsory.  PR  firms  on  all sides of the  Climate Wars  have found a  Best  Practice  : they  can  maximize their income by abolishing spontaneity in  favor  of  permanent political choreography. Striving to stay on - message, Hillary  Clinton  &  Ted Cruz,  Tom Fuller and Bill  McKibben have all been joined at the hip in their utter predictability.  

But loud as the music  may be,  climate  change  does  not  dance  to anyone's tune. The PR shills whose shillings stem from Lord Lawson's friends and energy barons from Alberta to Australia can no more slow down  radiative  forcing  by  modern civilization  than  their  polemic opponents can speed it up.

This planet's most complex dynamic system remains as ponderous as it is politically indifferent.  Even when mankind  grows to 9 billion souls, there will still be a billion pounds of atmosphere per capita, and the still vaster thermal inertia of Earth's hydrosphere and crust will continue to dictate the rate of man made climate forcing ecopoliticians  insist on presenting as an existential threat. 

This  does  not  justify conservative indifference to conservation as a moral imperative,  but  socialists from  Sanders to Sarkozy  might as well  try  explaining  the  acceleration  of  history  to  a  tree sloth  as attempt to  persuade nature to pick up the tempo  of warming to a rate ordinary voters can detect inside a four year term. Not even Public Television can save the climate debate from the reality of ennui.