A number of commentators have noted the irony that President Obama is heading up to Alaska and talking climate change a few days after his administration approved a lease for Shell to drill off the coast of Alaska.
It is a problem.
Really, we’re already past the point of no return with climate change. Even if we were to cut back drastically on our fossil fuels, by the end of the century we’re still likely to see sea level increases of about 20 to 24 feet.
Goodbye Florida.
And New Orleans.
And Bangladesh.
And the Netherlands.
On the other hand, Canada, Russia and Denmark (which has sovereignty over Greenland) might benefit substantially from climate change.
There will be winners, and losers, but a lot more losers than winners.
But if we want to continue to burn fossil fuels — and it sure looks like want to — we’d better be prepared to move literally millions of people off the coasts, to move entire portions of cities away from the coastline, and to do it all within the end of the next century, because those coastlines are coming for us, and they are not happy.
