Tom Ritchford
2 min readSep 19, 2021

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Your argument appears to be:

1. You don't know anything about the climate emergency

2. But it can't be that bad, really

3. And who knows, anyway?

Nuance? Back when I first heard about the climate crisis, in the 1970s, we had time to be nuanced.

But it's 50 years later and we have done less than nothing. We have run out of time to avoid disaster.

We've known for decades that most fossil fuels would have to stay in the ground - this study is just the most recent.

Carbon dioxide traps heat energy. This has been known for almost two centuries. Even at the time, scientists knew the consequences of putting a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. They just thought it would take centuries to happen. And here we are, centuries later.

It's not just that over 97% of climatologists and 100% of climatological research institutions agree. It's that the remaining 2.5% don't have a competing theory - some believe the Earth is heating but naturally, some believe it's staying the same, some believe it's cooling, and all of the are right wing English speakers.

Either you should take the time to learn the science, or you should accept the overwhelming consensus of science that we are in desperate trouble.

Look at this picture: https://xkcd.com/1338/

Those little green spots are all that's left of the world's wild mammals. And actually, that image is eight years old, so most of one of those green spots has gone.

By the way, I looked at the original article. This woman talked about her relationship with Obama entirely like a high school crush, and was completely uninterested in actual issues, politics, facts or any content at all.

"I’m just appalled. Not one of the great issues of our age even enters into your consciousness when you think of politics. Climate change, the destruction of our ecosystem, the destruction of the middle class, the endless foreign wars — these aren’t even a blip on your radar. Policy has no interest for you whatsoever — it’s all personalities."

You disagree. You think celebrity gossip is the entirety of politics. You are wrong.

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