Is 2020 Our Last Chance to Save the Earth? Remember When Climate Change was a News Headline? Are We Too Busy Being Hypocrites to Care?

The Best Paragraph I've Read: "We’re standing at a climate crossroads: the world has already warmed 1.1°C since the Industrial Revolution. If we pass 2°C, we risk hitting one or more major tipping points, where the effects of climate change go from advancing gradually to changing dramatically overnight, reshaping the planet. To ensure that we don’t pass that threshold, we need to cut emissions in half by 2030. Climate change has understandably fallen out of the public eye this year as the coronavirus pandemic rages. Nevertheless, this year, or perhaps this year and next, is likely to be the most pivotal yet in the fight against climate change. “We’ve run out of time to build new things in old ways,” says Rob Jackson, an earth system science professor at Stanford University and the chair of the Global Carbon Project. What we do now will define the fate of the planet–and human life on it–for decades." This paragraph comes from Time Magazine and author Justin Worland.  The article is titled: "2020 Is Our Last, Best Chance to Save the Planet." https://time.com/5864692/climate-change-defining-moment/  Zac and Don discuss how they see humans thinking about and acting towards the science of climate change.   Another Best Paragraph I've Read: "Throughout the nineteen-eighties and nineties, the evidence of climate change—and its potential hazards—continued to grow. Hansen kept expecting the political system to respond. This, after all, was what had happened with the ozone problem. Proof that chlorofluorocarbons were destroying the ozone layer came in 1985, when British scientists discovered that an ozone “hole” had opened up over Antarctica. The crisis was resolved—or, at least, prevented from growing worse—by an international treaty phasing out chlorofluorocarbons which was ratified in 1987." This paragraph comes from The New Yorker and author Elizabeth Kolbert.  The article is titled "The Climate Expert Who Delivered News No One Wanted To Hear." https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/06/29/the-catastrophist Zac and Don discuss whether climate change can be solved like the Ozone Layer was in the 1980's. Here are two science fiction books that are mentioned in the podcast: "2312" by Kim Stanley Robinson https://www.amazon.com/2312-Kim-Stanley-Robinson/dp/0316098116 "New York 2140" by Kim Stanley Robinson https://www.amazon.com/New-York-2140-Stanley-Robinson/dp/031626234X