Killing billions by climate change is fast becoming new norm

Why can't we tackle global warming? Click through to see our ideas ... Why can't we tackle global warming? Click through to see our ideas ... Image 1 of / 18 Caption Close Killing billions by climate change is fast becoming new norm 1 / 18 Back to Gallery

The world's temperature has been at record levels for months. One research paper after another has pointed out just how thoroughly we are in the business of screwing ourselves -- present and future. And yet we yawn.

About that future?

To escape this planet to anywhere meaningful, even in a thousand years, will be impossible. That a new understanding of the foundations of the universe will catapult us into FTL travel is passé in fiction. Okay, even given that assumption, however far fetched, however improbable, let's say it happens: A star ship of improbable dimensions is fashioned out of the raw materials on earth and several asteroids, captured in ways we still don't know are possible, that will carry 100 million people into interstellar space ... so what?

That leaves only, by then, something like eight to 10 billion - BILLION - people left behind. More likely it will be TEN-plus billion, but, hey, who's counting!

Even a complete break with reality as we know it will make that possibility profoundly unlikely. AND even if that were to be possible, the chances of finding an "Earth-like" planet is so remote that humans flying through the radiation-filled, meteor-rife "vacuum" of space are certain to die in space, especially if they have to propagate for generations. It's just too far anywhere and getting somewhere conducive to life is a vanishingly small possibility.

So, folks. We are going to live and die on this planet and only this planet. If we all die ... that's it. Game over. If religion gives you hope, I only ask that you wonder why.

The punchline: Climate change will kill more people than all the wars combined, and we are as responsible as the German citizen who may not have had any choice in or knowledge of Hitler's genocide.

And yet the litany of bad news supporting the worst possible global outcomes streams into our news feeds day in and day out like the shootings murdering our brothers and sisters daily around the country.

The key difference, if I can be so cold, is that at least a shooter has a target, a limited scope of possibility, a war has an objective.

Global warming has no such limit.

Jake Ellison can be reached at 206-448-8334 or jakeellison@seattlepi.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/Jake_News. Also, swing by and *LIKE* his page on Facebook. If Google Plus is your thing, check out our science coverage here.