Terrifying New Math

In preparation for our class, I re-read an article last night, published in Rolling Stone in 2012: Global Warming's Terrifying New Math .  And it is terrifying!

Once you see the clear indications of global warming (60 degrees in January in Southwest Michigan?!?), it's impossible not to see the signs everywhere.  The spread of Zika in the past year? Also connected to global warming.

Map shows the range of the Aedes aegypti mosquito for present-day (1950-2000) and future (2061-2080; RCP8.5) conditions. Larger cities have higher potential for travel-related virus introduction and local virus transmission. image by Andrew Monaghan, 

What I especially appreciate about McKibben's Rolling Stone article is that he calls out the main culprits: energy and oil companies.   Remember the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill by BP ?  They're still drilling!  And their pollution is free of charge...they don't pay for the pollutants they release into our atmosphere.  If they burn all the oil they currently own and plan to burn (trillions of dollars worth of oil), our planet is sunk.

Check out the math.  And then think about what happens if we ignore this math for another four years under the new administration.  The purported White House purge of scientific data may be even scarier.