Tipping points: they must not happen

After three decades of myopia and cynical indifference—it's the economy, stupid—we're at the brink, if not already over and into chaos. Think of this when you want to vote for a government to act on the weird weather that has awakened you to the climate dangers. Think of this when you realize there is no party you can vote for, no party that can form a government to do anything meaningful in order to save us from a climate catastrophe that didn't have to happen.

Sea ice in the North Pole, pictured. Climate scientists know that what is happening out of sight and far away can matter more. The Arctic has been warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. Arctic amplification seems to have significantly effected the jet stream, slowing its flow and making it wavy. The weather patterns have changed profoundly. Polar vortexes bring polar air deep down into the continents. Warm air is funnelled up into the Arctic even in winter, melting the Arctic icepack and Greenland glaciers, writes Bill Henderson. Photograph courtesy of Commons Wikimedia/Flickr Christopher Michel

Opinion

BY BILL HENDERSON

August 16, 2021

GIBSONS, B.C.—Heatwaves, wildfires, floods, drought, and polar vortex cold—extreme weather is going to be on the minds of voters in the coming federal election. Our evolutionary history has left us with brains that focus upon the local and temporal and people have noticed how out of whack the we...

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