Pentagon Climate Change Author Interviewed

cynical writes "Just in time for the opening of The Day After Tomorrow, the futurism/technology/environment blog WorldChanging has an interview with futurist Doug Randall, co-author of the "Abrupt Climate Change" scenario [PDF] commissioned by the Pentagon earlier this year. The report generated a storm of controversy a couple of months ago, and drew attention to the possibility that global warming could disrupt things enough to trigger a rapid-onset ice age. Now that the furor has died down, Randall can talk about climate change, how the report came to be, and just what he thinks about the new disaster movie."

Comments

They aren't looking at the Sun.

[MtViewGuy]

I think a lot of the problems with the environmental wacko crowd is that they've not bothered to factor in the ultimate determining factor of the Earth's climate, namely that thermonuclear fireball about 93,000,000 miles away called the Sun.

Because the radiation from the Sun does directly affect the Earth's atmosphere, when you have periods of strong sunspot activity it tends to heat up the atmosphere, and when you have periods of low sunspot activity the atmosphere stays relatively cool. That's why that period from the middle 17th to the middle 18th Centuries when scientists noted NO sunspot activity corresponded almost perfectly with a period very cool temperatures in Europe, cool enough that the Thames River regularly froze in winter!

The old story, US Government can't think long-term

[kabz]

As human beings we are short-term creatures and rely on elected government (or unelected-gooberment in the case of the US) to look after the interests of future generations.

However, the US goobers have refused to be any part of the Kyoto Accord to reduce global warming, even though most reasonable people would feel that it is a step in the right direction.

They have also stirred up the hornets' nest in Iraq, the effects of which may last for decades until some kind of stability can be achieved between Christian and Muslim religions.

Against this background, if the climate does change radically over a span of a decade or so, our children are probably stuck relying on the tenacious ability that our species has to survive in the face of almost any adversity.

As mentioned in the article, the poor and weak will more than likely fare worst.