Preface
We have designed a civilization based on science and technology and at the same
time have arranged things so that almost no one understands anything at all about
science and technology. This is a clear prescription for disaster. We may for a while
get away with this mix of ignorance and power but sooner or later it is bound to
blow up in our face.
Carl Sagan (Powell 2011, frontispiece)
Nature cannot be fooled.
Richard Feynman (Powell, 2011, frontispiece)
Tim Rinne, editor of the Nebraska Report, a publication of Nebraskans for Peace,
told me once that the scariest thing about global warming is that we as a species
essentially can ruin Earth as we know it by changing nothing. Continuing business
as usual will do it, a state of affairs much more difficult to change than resistance
to the nuclear arms race (where Tim cut his teeth as an activist). In the days when
the bomb was our premier worry (Nebraskans for Peace began as Cat Lovers Against
the Bomb), someone would have had to push that proverbial red button. With
global warming, all we have to do is press our gas pedals and flip our light switches—
keep doing what seems to most of us to be natural, necessary, and con ve nient.
In 2015, the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide breached 400 parts per mil-
lion in all areas during all seasons. Levels of methane and nitrous oxides, the other
two principal greenhouse gases, also reached record levels by substantial margins.
The same year, world temperatures, stoked by El Niño conditions, surged to a new
record as well, surpassing 2014’s previous highs. The year 2016 soon surpassed all
prior records, even after the El Niño had ended. “We’re moving into uncharted ter-
ritory at a frightening speed,” said World Meteorological Organization Secretary
General Michel Jarraud (Warrick 2015).
The combination of an intense El Niño and rising greenhouse gas levels in the
atmosphere was quickly reflected in surface temperatures. The winter of 2015–2016
in the lower 48 United States was the warmest on the 121-year instrumental record,
according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), at
nearly 5°F above 20th-century averages. Alaska had its second warmest winter on
record, almost 11°F above average. At the end of February, Anchorage had no snow
on the ground for the first time on record. Land areas outside the tropics in the
Northern Hemisphere were 1.46°C above average, 0.5 degrees above any previous
monthly anomaly, a spectacular high. World temperatures hit record highs as well.
