Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of

postscript: a disclosure S 219
of what he’d heard was correct. That meeting was 20 years ahead
of its time.
After the summer of 1980, the prospect of climate change had
a hold on my attention that has grown as the evidence, both scientifi
c and anecdotal, has mounted. Both the climate system and
human systems are nonlinear, which is to say that both are subject
to rapid and unpredictable changes that can spiral out of control
with small provocations at certain times and places. We should
have the intelligence and courage to dispel any lingering belief
that we can turn up the thermostat of the Earth and assume that
nothing else will change. Beyond some unknown point, lots of
other things will change, including our own behavior and capacities.
We will not be the same people at a consistent daily high of
110° as we are at 85°. Extreme duress will cause governments and
corporations to become more erratic. Under extreme heat and
drought, wildlife disappears and ecologies wither. Some of our
technology will not work dependably in extreme heat. Airport
runways and highways can buckle. Steel can warp and bend. Cooling
water for power plants will dry up. Air and water pollution
will be more concentrated. The summer of 1980 was a small, very
small, preview of a world we should avoid—and still just might.