The Vanishing Wilderness

MSNBC showed a documentary named "100 Heartbeats" as part of the series Future Earth.

"Welcome to MSNBC's 'Future Earth'
In "100 Heartbeats," the second premiere in MSNBC's landmark Future Earth series, famed naturalist Jeff Corwin tells the story of the "Sixth Extinction" — caused by people and which can only be stopped by people. Keep checking futureearth.msnbc.com for information about the next premiere, "Future Earth: 2025," which will air on Dec. 20. You can catch "100 Heartbeats" on MSNBC again on Thanksgiving at 11 a.m. ET"

As a Geographer ecological disaster has been part of my focus for half a century. Over time I have found that many concerns are over stated and hyped.

For example in 1970 I was enthralled by a PBS series called "The Vanishing Wilderness".

"OUR VANISHING WILDERNESS
40 years ago, a small crew of filmmakers set out to document some of the more pressing issues involving wildlife in America. They made eight half-hour films around the country–it ended up being the first environmental tv series in the US. Shot in 1969, the issues weren’t new, but hadn’t been handled much yet on television–the medium had yet to embrace the environmental movement. "

"‘Our Vanishing Wilderness’ started as a book. Created by husband and wife team Shelly Grossman, nature photographer, and Mary Louise Grossman, nature writer, it was a kind of hybrid: part environmental report, part natural history, and part nature photography coffee table book. "

Expose', is the word used by Time magazine to describe the series when it aired.
The current MSNBC documentary certainly deserves that label as well.

Normally it is not quite as bad as these things make it out to be.
For example they just found and extra 150,000 or so gorillas in the Congo, adding a bunch of animals to a supposed population of about 50,000 gorillas. That's a 300% increase in the last year.

Another example: "FEDERAL SCIENTISTS reported last fall that the northwest Montana population of grizzlies was more than twice as large as experts had previously thought..."

"Several years ago, Kate Kendall oversaw the fermenting of 2,200 gallons of rotting fish and cow blood for bear lure. “You can imagine the fun we had opening up those barrels a year later,” says the U.S. Geological Survey biologist. That would have been the summer of 2004, when Kendall deployed 230 field workers to construct more than 2,500 bear hair traps across 7.8 million acres of rugged wilderness in northwest Montana. The odor emanating from the lure poured in the center of each trap compelled hundreds of grizzlies, federally listed as threatened, to cross under or over a surrounding strand of barbed wire, usually leaving behind enough hair for DNA fingerprinting. The feat earned Kendall the stump-speech ridicule of presidential candidate John McCain, who cited her DNA study as an example of pork-barrel spending—his laugh line being, “I don’t know if that was a criminal issue or a paternal issue, but it was $3 million of our taxpayers’ money.”


So much for McCain's 25 watt intelligence and insight.

So when you hear the expose' claims that everything is falling apart it is hard sometimes to believe it.

That's part of the problem with Climate Change, it has become a liberal versus conservative football. Trouble is the conservatives are just pissing in their own beer on this question. The liberals however just see it as cause that will help them "green up" the planet.

Neither are even close to correct.

Climate Change?
Think asteroid headed towards the earth!
Think nuclear winter!
Think California falling into the ocean!
Think movie "The Day After"!

Over the top you say?
Here's the deal, the effects of climate change will be as problematic as those doomsday scenarios.
Jeez, Drlobo you done fallen off the wagon again?

No, we have passed a tipping point several years ago.
The only reasonable public policy decisions to be made right now are those to decide what to do as it happens to protect our population, agriculture, and economy.

None of the models are bad enough to predict what will really occur (Academics are always 10 years behind the curve).
None of the scientists involved are willing to stick out their necks and say what they are really thinking (they need to keep their salaries so as to save enough to move to the Rockies).
If you live in an area less than 50 feet above current 2009 sea level, move to higher ground.
If you want a great investment, invest in land around Churchill, Manitoba (fiftey feet above sea level that is).
If you want to see Polar bears in the wild do it next year.
If you like to eat, keep at least a year's worth of food in your pantry.
Want to see Venice without having to use SCUBA gear, go now.
If you are a Climate Change Denier change you name and move inland.

Everybody is telling you that the changes will be slow. Bullshit! Think years instead of decades, think months instead of years, think days instead of months, think, hey what's that outside my window...

Oklahoma Hurricane Erin August 19, 2008 (No Shit!)

The good thing is that we will survive the climate change and will handle most of it pretty well, but for a few.....