Fantasies, Myths, and Fairy Tales, Part Two

 This facade of the main street in Thurmond, West Virginia, looks impressive but hides the fact

that this is a ghost town. No businesses actually exist in these buildings today and the entire town only has 4 or 5 residents today. More info can be obtained here and here.

One of the pernicious effects of the mainstream media regarding climate change and indeed, all the other predicaments under the banner of ecological overshoot, is the sheer level of denial presented. This can easily be detected in many articles about different predicaments such as climate change and I found one in particular (out of thousands; this is just one of the most recent ones) that brings this phenomenon into focus, quote:

"Climate experts warn that, without urgent action, climate change will continue to cause an increase in the intensity of extreme rainfall that can lead to severe flooding.

An international research team have concluded that increases in extreme rainfall and associated flooding are projected to continue as global temperatures continue to rise. Efforts to limit warming to +1.5C will help limit changes in extreme rainfall, though some societal adaptations will still be required."

This is laughable to say the least. +1.5C will be reached most likely within the next five years regardless of what actions are taken at this point outside of a nuclear winter (a distinct possibility, as horrid as it is). Some experts have claimed that limiting climate change to +1.5C is now impossible and I agree. While there are some who still think it is possible to limit global temperatures to +1.5C, these appear to discount the reality of how society works, oceanic thermal inertia, and civilizational inertia. This civilizational inertia is extremely important to understand, as this prevents most attempts at reducing emissions from succeeding at accomplishing much if anything. As pointed out here, I go into great detail as to precisely why the constant claims of limiting climate change to +1.5 or +2C are based on fantasy for the most part. As such, urgent action will not stop or solve climate change, so these claims are based upon a false premise and underlying assumption to begin with. The peer-reviewed studies proving that point are contained in this article. Unfortunately, "some societal adaptations will still be required" is meaningless because the studies prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that we lack agency along with the energy and resources to be able to accomplish much of anything on climate change in human timescales. In other words, these articles might as well promise that Santa Claus will fix climate change. That is precisely how ridiculous the reality is in the claims of "bold action" or "urgent action" and holding temperatures to +1.5 or 2C. 

Overwhelmingly, the trouble is that this same faulty premise and language is written into literally COUNTLESS articles, shared in millions of videos, and even discussed on hundreds of television shows, bringing society to believe in these myths that we actually have the ability to stop or (even more ludicrous) reverse climate change. The science (in the above paragraph's links) brings the facts to the forefront that climate change is irreversible and that these articles are doing nothing more than promoting wishful thinking and denial of reality. 

Steve Bull has this article highlighting an article from Andrew Nikiforuk delineating how many of these types of articles and the societal communication regarding the predicaments they cover is based upon magical thinking. Very few people actually comprehend the existing layers of infrastructure society depends upon for day-to-day living. Some of these layers are beginning to enter the consciousness of society through some of the problems and predicaments which have been unfolding this year, including the Texas power outage in February, the pandemic and the microchip shortage, the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, and even the JBS ransomware attack. Society is just beginning to understand just how vulnerable we are, and people lack the comprehension that the more technology we employ, the MORE vulnerable we become. The more complex systems become, the more fragile and interconnected they become, exposing society to serious repercussions as a result of systemic collapse when these systems fail. More complex systems require more energy and when one interconnected system fails, the nodes and connections to other systems can topple those systems as well. As a result of ever-decreasing surplus energy available to society due to energy decline, in reality, degrowth is now the ONLY possibility. Individual companies or regions may claim growth, but this only comes from a sacrifice to other companies or regions. 

Coming back to the original article and topic, many people do not realize that for every 1C rise in temperature, 7% more moisture can be held in the atmosphere; quote: 

"According to the Clausius-Clapeyron equation, the air can generally hold around 7% more moisture for every 1C of temperature rise. As such, a world that is around 4C warmer than the pre-industrial era would have around 28% more water vapor in the atmosphere."

Needless to say, it should be obvious to even the casual observer that more moisture in the atmosphere will equal more extreme rainfall events and more flooding as a result. This will exacerbate other predicaments such as topsoil loss, nutrient and pollution loading (which causes eutrophication, dead zones, hypoxia, and toxic algal blooms), and agriculture & food and water security issues. 

In summary, and considering the science laid out in front us provided through the numerous links here and in the other articles linked, it is clear that urgent and/or bold (and/or any other type of) action will not stop or reverse climate change and that +1.5 or +2C or other goal posts cannot be guaranteed and are not even likely. It is past time to reject these notions as anything more than fantasies, myths, and fairy tales. For more fairy tales, head here.