The predictions of the climate scientists about global heating have been coming true. Already we have seen droughts, floods, rampant wildfires, shorter winters, insect infestations, dying fish, dying polar bears, melting glaciers, permafrost destruction, crop failures, climate refugees, and species destruction. The only thing the scientists have gotten wrong so far is the timetable. All of the model predictions have been underestimates.

According to Bill McKibben, climatologists had predicted that "it might take up to a decade before the surface of Greenland's ice sheet melted all at once. ...It actually happened in just a few weeks." McKibben says that this shift "only underscores how consistently cautious ice scientists have been in forecasting the threat posed by global warming." Greenland's glaciers are melting about 30 times faster than they were 10 years ago.

Now scientists are telling us to prepare for the flooding of coastal cities such as New York, Miami, and Boston within four decades. How cautious are their timetables for that prediction?

Even a paid shill of the Koch brothers has admitted to the dangers of global heating. The president of Exxon-Mobil has admitted to it, but he hastened to add: "We will adapt." And who, pray tell, is going to pay for these adaptations while the fossil fuel industry continues to drill and rake in its billions? As a journalist responded, "Moving entire cities can be very expensive."

We march against pipelines and we beg powerful people for carbon taxes. We try to drive our cars a bit less often, but our jobs are an hour away from our homes and there is no mass transit to take us from here to there. Most Americans even have to drive a car to the nearest grocery store. We are eons away from a viable interstate mass transit system -- let's say, a high-speed rail that could take us from Boston to Washington, DC in a few hours, transit of the kind that is commonplace throughout Europe.

Global heating is a process that is already in motion and can no longer be completely reversed. All we can do is to prevent it from getting much, much worse.

The Fossil Fuel Industry Presents a Clear and Present Danger

To gain control over this rapid feedback loop, we need to nationalize the fossil fuel industry and bring its assets, and its resources, under social control.

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