Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

This really is a full service blog.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Let there be snark.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Cole is on a roll !

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

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Reader Interactions

125Comments

  1. 1.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I read somewhere that some of the authors thought the report so dire, people would give up with out even trying. Or to paraphrase the Koch brothers, “See? There’s nothing we can do!”

  2. 2.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    I don’t claim to be any kind of an expert on climate change but shouldn’t the report be more aimed at accuracy than at making people feel good?

    You might think that but clearly not at this point…

    Perhaps pixies and unicorns will come and save us all… or maybe the baby Jeebus, riding a dinosaur…

  3. 3.

    James Gary

    Yup. Missed that one….I was too busy grinding down my teeth over today’s breathless “Morning Edition” report on the hot new trend for 40- and 50-somethings: unpaid internships.

  4. 4.

    chopper

    now the totebaggers are totes depressed. aren’t there some cat videos they can look at?

  5. 5.

    Mobile Grumpy Code Monkey

    I think a couple of authors have objected that the report is too alarmist, to which other authors have replied that it’s because the data are alarming. We’ve pissed away several decades where we could have taken steps to mitigate, and that window is rapidly closing.

  6. 6.

    PurpleGirl

    Argh. Head/Desk. Yes, a report about climate change and weather changes should be aimed at being accurate. Anything else is useless. If people can’t handle it, they need to suck it up and learn how to face the facts. (I know, they don’t “believe” in facts but in sincere feelings.)

  8. 8.

    Feudalism Now!

    The report is extremely conservative. The authors wanted to make sure there would be no accusation of over reach. Even toning the report down, the report shows dire consequences for inaction. There is no ability to adapt to rapid climate change. There will be painful losses and destruction. I guess that is a downer. Better to ignore it, at least everyone will be miserable equally. Except they won’t and that is why we continue to ignore CC. The mistaken belief that we will be spared the flood and fire. Idiocy.

  11. 11.

    ice weasel

    Bah, did anyone listen to NPR’s reporting on ACA yesterday? It was loaded, almost past the point of humor, with excessive negative adjectives and slanted so hard it was crazy. NPR news, in all its facets, has been Nice Polite Republicans since bush the dumber stacked the deck there years ago.

  12. 12.

    Gypsy Howell

    Well, considering that apparently we have no intention of doing anything about global warming, we might as well die dumb and happy. I guess.

  15. 15.

    willard

    “Fortunately, our handsomest politicians came up with a cheap, last minute way to combat global warming. Ever since 2063, we simply drop a giant ice cube into the ocean now and again.
    …
    Of course, because the greenhouse gasses are still building up, it takes more and more ice each time, thus solving the problem once and for all.”

  16. 16.

    El Cid

    I’m tired of all these scientists pointing out how stuff is. They need to talk about what stuff could be and shut up with all this fack-based crap.

  18. 18.

    Eric U.

    there are plenty of people at the CIA and DoD that are worried about the consequences of climate change. As well they should be, I assume there will be nasty consequences. I’m sure once we figure out how to give the MIC money to fix the problem, we will get right on it

  19. 19.

    Citizen_X

    Anybody listen to it? (I ain’t going there.) Is that seriously the focus of the report? “Oh, wow, man, this global warming stuff is such a bringdown!”

    Hey, I know: maybe we can get Rick Perry to lead us in praying it away!

  20. 20.

    C.V. Danes

    @Mobile Grumpy Code Monkey:

    We’ve pissed away several decades where we could have taken steps to mitigate, and that window is rapidly closing.

    There’s already enough change programmed into the system to raise seawater levels by 70 feet and turn the entire middle part of the country into a desert until the year 3000, no matter what we do at this point. So I would say that the window is already closed :-)

  21. 21.

    Amir Khalid

    I guess people really are finding it harder to tell entertainment and information apart.

  22. 22.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    OT: Ken Jennings likes to stir shit up. Who knew?

    Ken Jennings ‏@ KenJennings 12h
    “Reagan’s ghost & I were chilling Friday and we were like, wow, so clear to us now how nuts the Tea Party is!” –Andrew Breitbart’s ghost

  24. 24.

    C.V. Danes

    @Eric U.:

    there are plenty of people at the CIA and DoD that are worried about the consequences of climate change.

    Only because its going to be harder to waterboard people when fresh water becomes scarce.

  26. 26.

    daveNYC

    I heard the NPR headline and wanted to get punchy on someone. ‘It’s too depressing and didn’t take into account human ingenuity’. At least when economists say ‘assume a can opener’ they know they’re telling a joke.

  27. 27.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    In other news, it looks like murderer Jonathon Pollard is going to get out in exchange for Israel giving the Obama administration a few more months of pretending that they’re trying to do something to stop the brutal horrors that Israel is unleashing on their captive population of Untermenschen, horrors paid for with American tax dollars.

    How you guys feel about that? Convicted traitor and murderer gets out simply so that a charade can be maintained?

  28. 28.

    sparrow

    I can’t predict exactly how it will all go down, but I’d bet money that there will be horrific loss of life in the third-world countries (India, Africa) along with mass migrations, which will trigger reactionary right-wing parties in places like Europe where those immigrants will want to go. Lots of them will die from war, maybe more than from food/water shortages.

    Once things get REALLY ugly, like at least another 20 years, then many stupid people will finally be all about curbing greenhouse gases (esp through nuclear), but by then it will be way, way too late.

    Just look at the map of predicted crop yields. ALL of Africa/India are brown (meaning huge losses). Those places are going to explode.

  31. 31.

    Cervantes

    I don’t claim to be any kind of an expert on climate change but shouldn’t the report be more aimed at accuracy than at making people feel good?

    That’s the funniest question about NPR I’ve heard since roughly the mid-’90s.

  32. 32.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    You know the best part about the entire report?

    The only real result is even more of America will instead be convinced that global warming is a massive green fascist super-hoax and that scientists, ESPECIALLY climate scientists, are the stupidest people alive who can’t even figure out simple things like ‘the sun warms the earth’ unlike those brilliant laymen and their common sense.

    The Backfire Effect will win again, and asshats like NPR seeding it all will ensure we’ll burn before we finally get functional action from our leaders.

    EDIT: That is to say that America isn’t the only one. Unless things have changed recently, Australia seems to be hard on the “SUPER GREEN FASCIST HOAX” train as well, and other countries seem to have given up trying to pare back as well because the guys on the frontline (i.e. large countries like us) continue to not do shit mostly out of spite or gridlock.

  33. 33.

    srv

    I was thinking, maybe a meme that climate change is really a result of libtard industrial states dumping so much carbon into the atmosphere, and is just another form of economic warfare by The North to destroy the south and breadbasket.

    Can anyone get that to Alex Jones and Glenn Beck?

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne

    @ice weasel:

    They must have been getting some complaints, because a couple of weeks ago I was surprised to hear a really positive report about ACA on NPR. Gotta get that “balance” back!

  37. 37.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Amir Khalid: In the US media landscape, there is really no difference now, because eyeballs are all that concern management, because the only thing that is important is revenue from advertisers.

  38. 38.

    Belafon

    @MomSense: Someone on DailyKos wrote a diary pointing out that there were no combat deaths of US soldiers last month. So, naturally, someone had to jump in and say “well, there were ten suicides per day among US soldiers and those count as combat deaths.”

  39. 39.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @SatanicPanic:

    That doesn’t even get into the fact that even if a majority of Americans could accept it, our politicians end up listening mostly only to the minority screaming about scientists being either massive grifters and fraud artists, or barely functional retards whose knowledge pales to the pure unshakable genius of ‘common sense’.

    EDIT: Oh, and I forgot about the fact that, to far too goddamn many, the invocation of ‘Al Gore’ is proof positive that Climate Change is a massive hoax.

  40. 40.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @CONGRATULATIONS!: OK, here’s my fantasy on this one.

    Sure, we turn over Jonathan Pollard to the Israelis. They put him on an El Al flight, and just as it’s taking off, two F16s fire missiles at it, killing Pollard and his Mossad handlers before they leave US air space. We know the scum of Likud will NEVER fulfill any terms that Kerry extracted out of them in exchage for Pollard, such as treating the Palestinian untermenschen as human beings, since we all know they’re not. Pretty much with the same conviction Reinhard Heydrich felt about Jews in general.

  41. 41.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @CONGRATULATIONS!: Murderer? He was convicted of espionage. His indictment only covered espionage. He has done 27 years in prison – it’s not like he got probation. Spies are released and/or exchanged as parts of deals all the time. I would have no problem with Pollard spending the rest of his life in prison, but I would also have no problem with him being released if releasing him does some good.

  42. 42.

    PIGL

    @sparrow: The maps of predicted soil moisture deficit are terrifying. The smug smarmy denialists you see trolling the public fora, I wish I could slowly disembowel every single motherfucking one of them, and feed their livers to endangered carnivores.

    These people, and their backers, will cause the death of billions.

  43. 43.

    El Cid

    @The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:

    scientists, ESPECIALLY climate scientists, are the stupidest people alive who can’t even figure out simple things like ‘the sun warms the earth’ unlike those brilliant laymen and their common sense

    This is my favorite global warming denier ignoramus thing.

    It’s like they think scientists have not studied the Sun before and don’t know how hot or bright it is.

    You know, they just forgot because Al Gore.

  45. 45.

    PIGL

    @The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: Canada is part of that, too. Our national news service, the CBC? Their comments pages are totally dominated by climate trolls. It would be better if they did not report the news at all.

    I am beginning to conclude that a species that breeds, and will not constrain, such individuals deserves to perish. Too bad about everythign we are going to take with us.

  46. 46.

    beltane

    I did my complaining about NPR last night. NPR is like Satan without the joie de vivre. There, I said it.

  47. 47.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Omnes Omnibus: I don’t trust Likud to actually live up to any terms they agree to that involves the illegal settlements in the occupied territories (stuff it up your ass, Adelson), and apparently that’s just one of the things that Kerry has put on the table as part of any deal to release Pollard.

  49. 49.

    srv

    @Villago Delenda Est: Some people’s favorite blogger, Pat Lang, let’s the cat out of the bag

    Pollard’s only value as an intelligence asset was his US citizenship and security clearance at the Office of Naval Intelligence. This made it possible for him to lay his hands on classified documents, mostly concerning the USSR, and remove them from the facility so that his Israeli government handlers could photograph them before he returned them to ONI. He did not choose the documents. Some other or others in the US Government who were Israeli agents within the US government provided titles and serial numbers of documents within the classified library of ONI.

    Lang was on the assessment team for the Pollard spy case.

    He thinks Kerry will do anything for a Nobel. Others think maybe Adleson will make a donation to Obama’s library. Doesn’t get us anything.

  51. 51.

    Lurking Buffoon

    So… the arguments against global warming have gone from “Nuh uh! It’s not happening!” to “Sure, it might be changing, but it’s not due to human actions,” to “It’s not like anything can be done about it anyway,” and have now moved forward to “Maaaan, that’s just too depressing!” Awesome. At this rate we’ll finally get something done about it 4 generations after we’ve already been completely fucked!

  52. 52.

    BGK

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    No kidding. I about cracked a rib laughing last night while reading his tweets. Not only did he not back down from the Teatards, but doubled-down on the insults. Better still, he alluded to Malkin’s “Twitchy”-tards piling on, and took special pains to poke them in the eye.

    I believe I like the cut of that young fellow’s jib.

  53. 53.

    daveNYC

    @Punchy: Sorry about that, does anyone here use the handle ‘Stabby’?

    Not just the death of billions, though that’s more than bad enough. It will also cause the elimination of entire countries and cultures. Unless some seriously heavy lifting is done starting last decade, we’re going to spend the next century watching a curiously impersonal genocide slowly wipe out a large part of humanity.

  57. 57.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    Sorry about that, does anyone here use the handle ‘Stabby’?

    @daveNYC: Good friend of mine, a drummer, was given this nickname, not for being a violent antisocial person who stabs others, but for being a very uncoordinated person who frequently managed to stab himself. It was usually funny, although on two occasions he managed to hurt himself rather badly.

  58. 58.

    Botsplainer

    @Baud:

    Golfers: Get Great Balls at Really Good Prices!

    This makes me insane. Golf courses are huge sources of contamination of both riparian and ocean environments by the chemicals used to fertilize (nitrates and phosphorus), which causes the death of coral reefs.

    This is all so that fat Jesus-y Southern men can pretend that they’re performing a sporting activity outdoors, when all they’re really doing is getting drunk in manicured fake green surroundings, bragging about their mistresses and pretending that their retreated, fat covered dicks are actually capable of providing pleasure to their mistresses.

  59. 59.

    PIGL

    @daveNYC: There’s about 10,000 to 100,000 people in the world who have to be stripped of political and economic power, or nothing can be done. What astonishes me is that none of the intelligence services of the countries most threatened are taking action. We’d know if they were, from all the tragic explosions of private jets, and horrible limousine accidents.

  61. 61.

    Chickamin Slam

    It’s supposed to be a downer so people could in theory do something, anything about the problem. You cannot prevent x from happening but can you minimize the effects? Reduce something? Increase research into alternative fuel sources? Tax the 1% more?

    No? Bomb Iran you say? It will be a cakewalk? They’ll probably welcome us with open arms?

    Ok then.

    And Nate Silver wears a toupee.

  64. 64.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @srv: Hmmmm….they should have also been looking for someone who was extremely near-sighted, squints a lot, and wore soiled clothing….

  65. 65.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Omnes Omnibus: It’s going to have to be pretty rigorous, and there need to be well explained consequences for reneging on any part of the bargain after Pollard is released. Because I, too, do not trust Bibi any farther than I can throw him.

  66. 66.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    and there need to be well explained consequences for reneging on any part of the bargain after Pollard is released

    @Villago Delenda Est: Hate to ask, but what bargain? They want Pollard just as a condition to not walk out of the talks NOW. That’s all they’ve promised, is more talking. Why the fuck would you let a guy go for that?

  70. 70.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @CONGRATULATIONS!: From the AP article I read, the US brought up Pollard’s release as a possibility in exchange for Israeli concessions.

    That’s the context that I’m speculating within. If the Israelis are saying “we won’t talk about concessions until you hand over Pollard”, they can sit on it and spin.

  72. 72.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    From the AP article I read, the US brought up Pollard’s release as a possibility in exchange for Israeli concessions.

    @Villago Delenda Est: Ah, was not aware of that, not that it changes my thinking one bit. Fuck the Israelis.

  73. 73.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Villago Delenda Est: Per the NYT, there’s more to it, but the concessions strike me as grossly inadequate

    Israel would free a fourth batch of long-serving Palestinian prisoners as promised at the start of the talks, as well as 400 other prisoners, many of them women and children, who were not convicted of murder.
    Among the prisoners would be 14 Arab-Israelis, whose release is deeply controversial in Israel and could cause a crisis in its governing coalition, with some ministers threatening to quit if they are freed.

    Children as POWs… but if Pollard is one of the few cards we have (this situation will make your head spin in fifteen different directions), I don’t think this is enough; and here’s the “Trust Bibi” part:

    Israel would also agree to show “restraint” in building in its West Bank settlements, which most of the world views as illegal. The partial freeze would apply to the issuing of government tenders for housing; projects underway would be allowed to continue, and institutional projects like schools could still move forward. East Jerusalem, which Palestinians consider the capital of their future state, would not be included in the freeze.

  74. 74.

    Keith G

    Even the liberal NPR

    Given the above, it seems that the point of this thread, as well as the main idea of many comments above are sadly off the mark (Do you guys read more than the headline?)

    The notion of the climate report being a bummer was not NPR’s, but was part of the debate within those releasing said report. NPR was just noting that back and forth.

    Even the liberal NPR?

    I know that some folks here seem to get their rocks off dumping on NPR, but doing it over this story does not show any wisdom.

  75. 75.

    maya

    I’m still trying to figure out what a bunch of proper Jewish Republicans, and guest goyim, were doing in Shelly’s kassino on a Friday night. Does the Keno lounge now feature a standup Rabbi?

  76. 76.

    raven

    WASHINGTON (AP) — House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan is rolling out an updated budget plan that would slash $5.1 trillion in federal spending over the coming decade. The Republican proposal also would balance the government’s books by cutting food stamps, health care for the poor and working class, and programs like Pell Grants for low-income college students and pensions for federal workers.

    Ryan’s plan steers away from cuts to benefits for senior citizens, at least in the short term, but reprises a voucher-like Medicare program for future retirees that provides the basis for GOP claims that the measure would drive down government debt over the long term.

    The plan promises a balanced budget within a decade and should skate through the Budget Committee on Wednesday. Floor action next week is less certain.

  82. 82.

    kindness

    I used to listen to NPR during my morning & evening commute. Now I typically last about 15 minutes in the morning (less if Cokie Roberts says anything) and don’t listen at all in the evening. My ipod hooked to my car stereo is the saving grace to soothe my sanity. NPR has become the opposite of that.

    Screw them.

  84. 84.

    Gordon, the Big Express Engine

    @catclub: I grew up on Long Island and was a 13 year old Mets fan and SI subscriber. Needless to say I was really excited and fell for it hook line and sinker!

  86. 86.

    chopper

    @SatanicPanic:

    saying that doesn’t make you mclaren. now, replace “angels” with “raping teenagers while you cheer waving a foam finger”, you’re getting close.

  87. 87.

    Belafon

    @SatanicPanic: It’s not the believing in angels that’s the issue. It’s the believing that the angels’ boss will come down and fix things, which is like believing that at 40 years old, your parents will still put band aids on your boo boos.

  88. 88.

    chopper

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    besides, pollard is up for parole next year. not saying he’d automatically get it, but he’s gotten a longer sentence and spent more time in prison than most spies.

  91. 91.

    Anoniminous

    @Cervantes:

    I don’t claim to be any kind of an expert on …

    Is journalistic shorthand for:

    I’m as dumb as a sack of hammers, a kumquat has more understanding of the issue than I do, and anything I say will only make anybody listening to this stupider but I’ve got column inches/air time to fill so here ’tis: babble-babble-babble

  92. 92.

    Mino

    Snowden released some disturbing documentation of NSA’s role in blowing up Copenhagen in 2009. What the motive was is an open question.

  94. 94.

    raven

    The journalist most associated with the coverage of Edward Snowden’s leak of phone and Internet surveillance by the National Security Agency will be this year’s recipient of the University of Georgia’s McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage.

    Glenn Greenwald was a columnist for The Guardian and is now a founder of First Look Media’s “The Intercept.” He’ll receive the award during a ceremony in the fall.

    Last June, Greenwald was the first journalist to report that the NSA was collecting the telephone records of millions of U.S. customers of Verizon, one of America’s largest telecom providers.

    Greenwald was nominated for the UGA award by Dorothy Parvaz, an editor at Al Jazeera English and last year’s award recipient.

  95. 95.

    SatanicPanic

    @Belafon: God wouldn’t let the earth get messed up in the first place. Unless of course you ate an apple you weren’t supposed to or had to much sekks, in which case he’ll flood the shit out of it.

  96. 96.

    Sly

    I don’t claim to be any kind of an expert on climate change but shouldn’t the report be more aimed at accuracy than at making people feel good?

    All I want to know is this: can I get that report in the form of a TED Talk by Malcolm Gladwell?

  97. 97.

    JPL

    @raven: I did read that the plan to kill the poor doesn’t actually balance the budget. The budget is balanced because tax cuts for the wealthy will stimulate growth. Tax cuts always pay for themselves, you know.

  98. 98.

    Jay C

    @maya:

    What else would get a bunch of Republicans to all get together in Vegas? M-O-N-E-Y, of course! Sheldon Adelson has been auditioning for the part of the Third* Koch Brother for a while, and it seem to be his goal to set himself up as major macher in national (GOP) politics. He’s got the money to burn from all that gambling gaming and RE business, and it seems only to take taking a hard (Likudnik) line on Israeli issues for pols to get their hands on some of it.

    *actually, “Fourth”? It’s hard to tell your Kochs without a program, but isn’t one of the infamous brother a liberal/apolitical?

  100. 100.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    All I want to know is this: can I get that report in the form of a TED Talk by Malcolm Gladwell?

    @Sly: The 21st century version of Cliff Notes, bathed in a slimy veneer of self-satisfaction, noblesse oblige, and one-percenter smugness. What is not to like?

  101. 101.

    pacem appellant

    @Citizen_X: Heard that on the drive home yesterday. (I was in a rental and didn’t my my SiriusXM, so NPR it was). The first half of the article was pretty stupid, even for stupid NPR standards. It focused on one author (out of hundreds) who pulled his name from the final report and focused on interviews with him. And the reason he pulled his name was that he felt that the report didn’t include human ingenuity. The authors who kept their names on the report said that was true, and so what? The second half of the article was about how all the scientists, ALL OF THEM, agree that climate change is real, and it is bad. I don’t know about journimalism none too much, but if 100 people say “bad”, and 1 person says bad, but kinda a downer” what’s the point of emphasizing the one dude who said “bummer” when he isn’t disputing any of the facts at all? f-ing NPR.

    My local NPR affiliate it KQED San Francisco, and I pledge at the minimum amount. I’ve told them that if they want to get more dough out of me, they’ll need to blow up “Here and Now” and only play “The News Hour” with an ironic soundtrack or MST3K-style overlays.

  103. 103.

    Woodrowfan

    yeah, we’re pretty much screwed on climate. I look at my students and wonder what hell they’re in for when they’re my age…

  104. 104.

    The Pale Scot

    Darling, it’s not how you look, it’s how you feel, just as long as everyone feels MARV-EL-OUS, what could be wrong?

  105. 105.

    some guy

    @Keith G:

    your concern about the rightwing news organization NPR being labeled a rightwing news organization is duly noted.

  106. 106.

    some guy

    Martin Indyk’s wet dream of seeing a convicted traitor released to the apartheid regime he shills for is close to fruition. good job, Martin, you have proven twice as clever as Dennis Ross in selling out your own country.

  108. 108.

    kc

    “You Won’t Believe the Latest Climate Report!”

    “Seven Reasons the Latest Climate Report is Such a Downer!”

  113. 113.

    Belafon

    @John Weiss: Even before I knew about climate change, I often wondered how big and where in space you would put a set of blinds that we could control from earth to tone down the sun. I hate summer.

  115. 115.

    catclub

    @JPL: ” The budget is balanced because tax cuts for the wealthy will stimulate growth. ”

    The best part of Ryan’s budgets are the unexplained increases in growth that are inserted after Heritage has already inserted ITS highest imaginable growth scenario.

    Also that the actual budget deficit has fallen faster under the real President Obama, than under his fantasy budgets.

  117. 117.

    Matt McIrvin

    NO, what’s a downer is knowing all this stuff and knowing other people don’t pay attention to it. Having it actually get some press, that’s happy-making.

    Actually it kind of astounds me that anyone would consider the stuff the IPCC will actually say as too depressing. What drives me around the bend is individual speculation on the ‘net that goes way beyond it, like James Hansen’s statement that we could actually turn the Earth into a second Venus (most climatologists don’t agree), or Lovelock’s claim that 100 years from now only “a few breeding pairs” of humans will be alive (again, not a consensus view), or the people going way beyond the data about the Giant Methane Burp, or the Voluntary Human Extinction people. The IPCC reports cheer me up because they suggest that civilization might just have big problems that can be addressed through big efforts. Depressing, you don’t know depressing.

  118. 118.

    Comrade Dread

    What’s a downer is that thanks to my parent’s generation and my generation doing nothing about Climate Change (save debate whether it was a hoax perpetuated by scientists to bilk government grant money to pay for Ferraris and hookers or a hoax perpetuated by scientists to bilk government grant money to buy mansions) my kids are probably going to live in very interesting times when they grow up and realize that for all the abundance of oil and money sitting around, there’s not a damn thing left to eat except other people.

  119. 119.

    TriassicSands

    Professor Tol had his name removed from the report’s summary because he felt it was too “alarmist.” I heard Tol interviewed on NPR and I was comforted by his assurances that things will turn out much better than the report suggests, because science and technology were going to bale us out. Perhaps, Tol should read The Logic of Scientific Discovery (Karl Popper). Betting on science is iffy at best. How many predictions of where science would take us by a certain date have proved utterly wrong. If one were counting on a cure for cancer back when war was officially declared on it, today’s death statistics would be quite depressing. The point is we can’t depend on (let alone predict) scientific and technological breakthroughs and discoveries. They may happen; they may not. Do we bet the future of the planet on what we expect in crop production based on what has happened in that field over the past century? I wouldn’t. Yes, we may continue to have breakthroughs that allow increased crop production (under adverse conditions) that will offset reductions caused by climate change. Or we may not. Professor Tol seems to be willing to bet the farm on those advances happening when they are needed.

    He apparently also doesn’t think that adult human beings can process and respond positively to bad news, and he may be right. But treating adults like children, because they can’t deal with too much bad news is a prescription for disaster. He may well be right — certainly American adults don’t appear very sophisticated when it comes to dealing with bad news, but then I’d say it’s time they grew up. Otherwise, scientists may have to spoon feed people information in child-size bites so no one starts crying.

    I want reports like this to give me an accurate appraisal of what we know, what we don’t know, along with best, worst, and most likely case scenarios. I don’t want my feelings spared and I don’t want to be browbeaten into accepting a gloomier future than is likely. However, if there are risks of moving past points of no return, even if we can’t say precisely what or when those points are, I want to know that.

    I do worry that scientists may fear that they won’t be listened to if their message is tempered with uncertainty. That is a failing of human beings — hearing only what they want to hear — and I understand if scientists, genuinely concerned about what they see as the likely consequences of climate change, feel the need to stress or even overstate the case to ensure that they get people’s attention. But in the end, we have to deal with the uncertainty inherent in such a complex system, and all the signs so far are that human beings aren’t up to the task.

  120. 120.

    maya

    @Jay C:

    actually, “Fourth”? It’s hard to tell your Kochs without a program, but isn’t one of the infamous brother a liberal/apolitical?

    There are 4 Koch offsprung. Besides the two involved with money grubbing and teatard politics, Charles (the head Koch) and Davey (the front Koch, who can’t seem to find a good tailor), there’s Davy’s twin bro, Bill. Also an asshole, but since the twins seem to have an ongoing feud since first crapping their playpen, (“he did it, Dada”) he is mistakenly referred to as the “good Koch”. He isn’t. He’s the one with a hard-on for the wind and solar industry. Why? He owns coal mines.

    There is also Fred, Jr who is a reclusive art collector and doesn’t appear to have his other brothers’ nor his namesake daddy’s penchant for accumulating wealth for it’s own sake. Avarice is one of those sacred virtues curiously practiced by the John Calvin Sect of the Roman Catholic Religion. Scalia et al of SC(R)OTUS appear to be of the same persuasion.

    No matter how many billionaires are stacked end to end, side by side, or Koch to Koch in right wing politics, they still don’t possess a schvanse as big and thick and as evil as George Soros’ is, ya know.

  121. 121.

    Keith G

    @some guy: If that’s what you want to believe….

    It seems to me that NPR has no ambition to be either side’s mouth piece. I have been able to count on their news department to be better than almost all the rest at identifying facts as they find them. And AFAIAC, that is their higher calling. Yes, there are individual efforts that I have found underwhelming, but that is what happens in a human enterprise.

    Some folks here seem to need targets to vent frustration whether it is accurately aimed or not. I guess that’s another service of NPR.

  122. 122.

    Matt McIrvin

    What does concern me is that the reaction to this I’ve heard still seems to be way too binary: “Can we prevent climate change or are we screwed forever? Should we focus on prevention or on adaptation?”

    I’ve personally thought for years that the “less than 2 degrees C” target set umpteen years ago was probably not politically achievable. But it’s not as if under 2 degrees C temperature rise, everything is fine, and over 2 degrees C, it’s the end of the world and there is no hope. It’s a continuum. That threshold was just an arbitrary line drawn because people needed to draw a line.

    We have to be adapting to big changes no matter what: we’re not unscrambling this egg. We need to reduce/eliminate carbon emissions no matter what: business as usual forever will just drive the temperature beyond anyone’s ability to adapt. The number just tells us where we end up on the spectrum.

  123. 123.

    TerryC

    @Botsplainer: There is hope. A third of all rounds of golf played in the USA this year will be rounds of disc golf. And, no, those are not the same people :)

  125. 125.

    Cervantes

    @Anoniminous:

    I don’t claim to be any kind of an expert on …

    Is journalistic shorthand for: I’m as dumb as a sack of hammers, a kumquat has more understanding of the issue than I do, and anything I say will only make anybody listening to this stupider but I’ve got column inches/air time to fill so here ’tis: babble-babble-babble

    That’s DougJ you’re quoting and berating there.

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