Hi all:

This is a shout-out comment as to my frustration with the opponents of action on climate change, particularly with respect to their predictable unintelligent comments the last week as to the cold in the US and how they think (or portray themselves as thinking if only to troll) that the cold weather extremes are evidence against human-caused climate change.

It has been clear for decades that one of the predicted developments with climate change would be disruption to normal patterns, and extremes of weather. One of the focus points here has been the question of disruption to polar and gulf stream and other ocean and atmospheric patterns (or whatever the correct scientific term would be). These have been predicted and what I would say is that the response of the obstructionists and trolls as well has been very anthropologically predictable. If all of a sudden it gets extremely cold, immediately they are trying to draw on the least understanding amongst us to rally them around the idea that human-caused climate change (and specifically warming) is not here.

But it is very likely here, and the cold weather extremes are not, in any way, inconsistent with this. The Rush Limbaughs, Donald Trumps and other opponents of action on climate change might not be treated too harshly by future historians if the consequences of being wrong were not that big, but we are told the consequences may be in the millions or even billions of lives, and in trillions or dozens of trillions of dollars in damages. While those consequences may not come to pass, and while it is even just possible that human-caused climate change is not going to turn out as most experts presently predict, it is significantly uncivilized and even grotesquely morally wrong, in the face of so much evidence, to stand in the way of the vast majority of us erring on the side of caution.... we want to spend money and effort on erring on the side of assuming that earth and the human life on it are in grave danger. The trolls and opponents of action, if they really want to do the right thing, should get out of the way.