This essay speaks to the importance of documenting what we are losing before it’s gone.
By Justin E.H. Smith
“There is a great die-off under way, one that may justly be compared to the disappearance of dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous, or the sudden downfall of so many great mammals at the beginning of the Holocene. But how far can such a comparison really take us in assessing the present moment?
The hard data tell us that what is happening to animals right now is part of the same broad historical process that has swept up humans: We are all being homogenized, subjected to uniform standards, domesticated. A curiosity that might help to drive this home: At present, the total biomass of mammals raised for food vastly exceeds the biomass of all mammalian wildlife on the planet (it also exceeds that of the human species itself). This was certainly not the case 10,000 or so years ago, at the dawn of the age of pastoralism.
It is hard to know where exactly, or even inexactly, to place the boundary between prehistory and history. Indeed, some authors argue that the very idea of prehistory is a sort of artificial buffer zone set up to protect properly human society from the vast expanse of mere nature that preceded us. But if we must set up a boundary, I suggest the moment when human beings began to dominate and control other large mammals for their own, human ends.”
Read the entire essay at The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Dr. John P. Holdren
Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy
The White House
“Today, we released the third National Climate Assessment report, by far the most comprehensive look ever at climate change impacts in the United States.
Based on four years of work by hundreds of experts from government, academia, corporations, and public-interest organizations, the Assessment confirms abundant data and examples that climate change isn’t some distant threat — it’s affecting us now.
Not only are the planet and the nation warming on average, but a number of types of extreme weather events linked to climate change have become more frequent or intense in many regions, including heat waves, droughts, heavy downpours, floods, and some kinds of destructive storms.
The good news is that there are sensible steps that we can take to protect this country and the planet.
Those steps include, importantly, the three sets of actions making up the Climate Action Plan that President Obama announced last June: cutting carbon pollution in America; increasing preparedness for and resilience to the changes in climate that already are ongoing; and leading the international response to the climate change challenge.
We’ve made great progress in the year since his announcement — but there’s much more work to be done.
Watch this short video to learn more about the new report and see how climate change is affecting people across the United States today. Explore the full report, and find out how you can help — because every one of us has to do his or her part to meet the challenge of climate change.
Thank you,
John
Dr. John P. Holdren
Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy
The White House”
For more information about the assessment, go to http://www.globalchange.gov/
And… below is an article that mention’s Susan Hassol’s contribution to this report. You may remember that Sue gave the keynote address at our recent IGC Retreat.
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2014/05/06/climate-report-nails-risk-communication
Dr. John P. Holdren
Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy
The White House
“Today, we released the third National Climate Assessment report, by far the most comprehensive look ever at climate change impacts in the United States.
Based on four years of work by hundreds of experts from government, academia, corporations, and public-interest organizations, the Assessment confirms abundant data and examples that climate change isn’t some distant threat — it’s affecting us now.
Not only are the planet and the nation warming on average, but a number of types of extreme weather events linked to climate change have become more frequent or intense in many regions, including heat waves, droughts, heavy downpours, floods, and some kinds of destructive storms.
The good news is that there are sensible steps that we can take to protect this country and the planet.
Those steps include, importantly, the three sets of actions making up the Climate Action Plan that President Obama announced last June: cutting carbon pollution in America; increasing preparedness for and resilience to the changes in climate that already are ongoing; and leading the international response to the climate change challenge.
We’ve made great progress in the year since his announcement — but there’s much more work to be done.
Watch this short video to learn more about the new report and see how climate change is affecting people across the United States today. Explore the full report, and find out how you can help — because every one of us has to do his or her part to meet the challenge of climate change.
Thank you,
John
Dr. John P. Holdren
Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy
The White House
For more information about the assessment, go to http://www.globalchange.gov/