Um...Holy Shit?

Worse news than economic meltdown. Worse news even than McCain as President...Washington Post, p.A2:

The rise in global carbon dioxide emissions last year outpaced international researchers' most dire projections, according to figures being released today, as human-generated greenhouse gases continued to build up in the atmosphere despite international agreements and national policies aimed at curbing climate change.

In 2007, carbon released from burning fossil fuels and producing cement increased 2.9 percent over that released in 2006, to a total of 8.47 gigatons, or billions of metric tons, according to the Australia-based Global Carbon Project, an international consortium of scientists that tracks emissions. This output is at the very high end of scenarios outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and could translate into a global temperature rise of more than 11 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, according to the panel's estimates.

At this point I don't give a shit about the solvency of Social Security or any of that shit. We aren't gonna need it if we're all dead—this needs to be handled and handled fast. Can we please get serious about this shit?

No more fucking morons who think dinosaurs and humans shared a campfire. We need Obama and the Dems to win in a walk and replace every one of the incompetent retards Bush installed throughout the government with actual scientists.

I don't want to hear any more crap about Clean Coal™ from Obama after the election. It's garbage. It's a fucking lie. No new coal plants. Period. Take every existing coal plant and upgrade it to the max, but no more new ones. We need a real solar initiative, and fucking windmills everywhere—in Ted Kennedy's backyard, yours and mine. Here in Asheville and the mountains, I'm sure there will be all kinds of objections to windmills destroying the view—fuck that. The smog from the coal plants gets so bad here there is no fucking view, and I don't want my kids having asthma.

This is The New Deal and the Space Race wrapped into one. Autoworkers in Michigan can be manufacturing turbines, I don't care if it's for a government factory. Just get moving on this shit. It's good for the economy, healthcare, energy...everything.

[h/t Kevin Drum who summed up thusly, "We are so screwed."]

Isaac's Storm. Or, "Ike" for short...

As a kid, I remember having (or reading) a book on natural disasters throughout history—from Pompeii and Krakatoa to the San Francisco Earthquake the Johnstown Flood—I found that stuff riveting, and read it over and over. One of the stories that stuck with me was that of the storm that destroyed Galveston, Texas in 1900.

In the '90s, I spent a small fortune on books from amazon.com, and nonfiction stuff from Jon Krakauer and Sebastion Junger were staples in my reading diet. A lesser-known book was Isaac's Storm by Erik Larsen. Centered around an early meteorologist, Isaac Cline, it was a fascinating look at the destruction of Galveston and the hubris and folly of man in the face of the overwhelming power of nature.

From what I just read here and here, Galveston might be looking like 1900 all over again...

Except Ike is now playing the role of the power of nature, and these Darwin Award contenders will be representing the folly of man.

Look, I'm a weather nerd with the best of 'em. Love a thunderstorm, and pined to see a tornado while I lived in the Midwest—so I can understand the temptation to experience a hurricane... But, when the National Weather Service forcast contains the words "face certain death" and a mandatory evacuation is ordered and the police drive through in dump trucks to take everyone out and tell anyone who refuses that they need to write their names on their arms in black marker so their bodies can be identified, it's time to get the fuck outta Dodge.

Don't "Fall" For It

When you are faced with the opportunity to watch a trailer for Tarsem Singh's "The Fall" DON'T watch it.

Just take "DAVID FINCHER and SPIKE JONZE Present" for what it's worth (which = "fucking great!") and wait for the movie. Then see it right away, before it's all spoiled.

I wish I never watched the trailer...