Taking Stock - 308

 I have been a hoarder, much to the dismay of my girlfriend. "When are you going to throw these science magazines out?", she chastised me.

For the last ten years, I have received Science magazines from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Scientific American, Science News, and, sometimes, National Geographic and Discovery. I only keep the ones with climate articles. Some will have only one article, while others will be a magazine full of climate articles.

Here are a few front covers that caught my eye this Saturday as I attempted to stack them up in my living room.

From 2015: "Cool It" the National Geographic.

2016: "The Climate Issue" by the Nature Conservancy

2017: "Our Melting Planet", Discover Magazine.

2018: "Too Darn Hot," Science News Magazine

2020: "Coping With Climate Change", Science News

2020: "One Last Chance", Time

2022: "A Choice of Futures," Science Magazine

2023: "The Climate Fix", Science News

TV meteorologists show us extreme weather in real-time, but scientists have been digging up warnings from the past. The most explicit warning from the Earth's deep past came in the 175th Anniversary Issue of Scientific American, 2020. Science Journalist Peter Brannen gathered the science reports on Earth's five previous mass extinctions and wrote the article "The Worst Times on Earth." 

Mass extinctions are tied to increases in greenhouse gases over lengthy periods. Today, humans are increasing GHG concentrations much faster.  Peter cautions us, "We must stop digging up old life, (coal, oil, and gas, my add), from deep in the Earth's crust and lighting it on fire at the surface. As humanity leans on the very same levers that pulled in the very worst things that have ever happened in history, we must consult the ages and listen to the counsel of broken worlds past."

The warnings have been clear for years. NASA's James Hansen testified before Congress 36 years ago.

The good news is that solutions are coming fast. The big picture solution came from the National Academies of Science in the publication Accelerating Decarbonization in the United States: Technology, Policy, and Societal Dimensions.

Many of the NAS solutions were incorporated in the recent Inflation Reduction Act. It was a brave and science-based start. But many more solutions need to be pursued. We might pause to think. We are the ones who can elect leaders who will promote policies based on the path set by the world's best scientists at the NAS.

I hope the thousands of warnings and solutions in my hoard of articles do not go unheeded.

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