Said a top scientist at Yale to me today:

“Wow. I have thought about worst case contingency plans in terms of policy
(mitigation) action, but not this polar cities adaptation measure.”

He was referring to polar cities, our fire exits for the future, our lifeboats for the future. Sharon, have you ever considered the idea of polar cities and what they might mean for humankind? See info here. Maybe one day blog pro or con on them, too?

DANNY
http://pcillu101.blogspot.com

Sharon, I feel it is already too late. We passed the tipping point about 40 years ago, and we are now living on borrowed time. Forget 2012 or 2015. We are done for as a civilized humanity. O the humanity! Meanwhile, as we jabber, the highways of Norther America, South America, Asia and Europe are clogged with “CO2 beasts” and nobody is lifting a finger to stop this sad end of humankind.

Now is the time to prepare for transition towns, and later for polar cities. We will need transition towns by 2050, and we will need polar cities by 2500. For the breeding pairs in the north to continue to human species. This is serious. We need to face the reality of it all. We are not in kindergarten anymore. Time has run out.

We cannot get down from the tree because we climbed to high, yes. Perfect metaphor. We are done for. Our goose is cooked. But we still have 30 more generations to prepare for the worst. The worst won’t happen for another 500 years. So let’s roll up our sleeves, our mental sleeves, our spiritual sleeves, and get to work. Forget life in the Lower 48 and Europe and South America and China and India. All those “places” will be unlivable by 2500.

Sharon, what do YOU think of these ideas?

With the Greenland and Antarctic ice masses. Potential energy 100 million TWh there, for a thousand years globally.

We have a thousand years time to detect other energy making forms, and that is enough time.

I really like “energy freedom.” I’m gonna use that.

To Jace & pro-nukies: You should ignore us luddites. You need to talk w/the nuke industry like Fla Power & Light (FPL). Maybe you can help ‘em to get THEIR act together.

FPL, with the help of local, state & federal officials and agencies, Federal subsidies & llimitations of liability and a streamlined (non)regulatory atmosphere, are gonna add two units to Turkey Point down in Miami (probably first new nukes in the nation).

FPL is charging utility customers, NOW, for the conservatively estimated $16 Billion these new units will cost, driving up already high utility bills…

FPL’s gonna build up 300 coastal acres to 20 feet above sea level so they needn’t fear seal level rise or storm surge. (A Category 2 Hurricane here in the panhandle caused a 22 foot storm surge a couple of years ago.)

And then FPL and the local/state officials don’t have a clue where the water is gonna come from to operate the reactors – millions of gallons per day in a locality with already dreadful water shortages and a several year drought. Maybe spend billions on water reclamation infrastructure, not estimated in the cost of these plants?

Oh yeah, and FPL has had numerous security issues, like sleeping guards. And technical issues, like a recent blackout, and on…

You really want to spend $ multi-quadrillions on a nationwide nuke strategy?

edde