I do not really enjoy dealing with the idea that our home is doomed. Did the last century kill our visions of greener pastures and blue skies? McKibben knows...
"360[ppm] is now known to be the level at which coral reeds cease to be viable in the long run." -Zoological Society of London, 2009, on the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.
McKibben is an advisor, an avalanche gun revealing the instabilities of our global society. He's telling us what is scary, how we're responsible, and how we cannot do anything about it. Sometimes literally nothing. You can't shut off the methane leaking from permafrost layers.
"We're running Genesis backward, decreating."
"Here's all I'm trying to say: The planet on which our civilization evolved no longer exists."
I've heard ramblings from the small farm agriculture community that growing seasons are becoming longer and in some areas more arid or wet. McKibben touches on some topics. Rain will come down harder and in greater quantity in a shorter period of time. Lightning strikes are increasing, cloud formations and respiration are lessening. In the Amazon, the flow of water away from the ocean has been slowed - usually it would make its way to the Andes range west of the great forest... now the waters are becoming more and more saline. Even in our own backyard, gardeners can plant sooner and harvest later. Flowers are blooming forty days earlier in the Himalayas.
Some awesome USGS visuals of Kilauea
Kilauea Pt. 1
Kilauea Pt. 2
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