I finished reading Michael Mann's book "The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars." I found the book to be both engrossing and distressful.
I was engrossed by the descriptions of the science to understand climate change that filled my curious mind with a wealth of ideas and questions. I was distressed by the record of the attempts by the deniers to discredit both the science and the scientists. This tale left me feeling betrayed by the political foundations of our society, and ultimately by the Powers That Be in today's world.
I now understand much more fully just how the climate scientists have gone about extracting from a wide variety of proxies estimates for the temperature and climatic conditions of the past, and how they are projecting the trends seen to suggest climate conditions in the future. I feel they have adequately established that there are significant dangers facing the people of today. I am convinced more than ever that the world is well on its way to a state where our current civilization cannot survive. Things must change, and it will be a harsh change -- one I hope to avoid by dying of old age before things get too bad.
I also better understand the minds and actions of those who doubt the climate dangers of the future. People in general want to feel optimistic, and they often avoid recognizing obvious risk because it is pessimistic to think about it. The risk has not been reduced, but their attention to that risk has.
And I better recognize those charlatans who are leading and funding the efforts to mislead humanity for the sake of profit and power. They are taking advantage of people's natural tendency toward optimism by sowing confusion and doubt, and in the process are making the risk even more costly. In my opinion, TPTB are endangering the very existence of humankind.
Mann's book supports many conclusions in my book “Was a Time When” which offers a scenario of the possible future over the next 85 years of the West Coast of the USA. I do not expect all the details and timing to match, but the urgency to do something about the problem is even more apparent.
sam
