Chuck Edelstein, Nederland.     Google “global warming” or “climate change” and be prepared to be overwhelmed. The former boasts 31,900,000 results, with the latter showing 76,700,000 results. “Global warming hoax” has about 3,400,000 and “global climate change,” preferred by many climate scientists, tops the charts with 131,000,000 results.

The Wall Street Journal wrote of the third edition of the Rough Guide to Climate Change (2011), “If you want a plain-language book about climate change, this is the book for you.”  Author Robert Henson, writing and editing for UCAR/NCAR since 1989, received the following introduction from the Yale Climate Connections, “Henson’s Rough Guide to Climate Change [is] a must for reporters’ sagging bookshelves.”

In pages 3-23, titled “Climate Change: a Primer,” Henson gives a concise overview of the chapters to follow. There are colorful, readable charts, graphs, and photos throughout the book. Part 3, “The Science,” is so clear that even a retired judge who almost flunked biology can understand it (me, of course). An annotated list of “Books that Have Global Warming at or Near Their Center” is a great resource for lay readers.

“An Adaptability Limit to Climate Change Due to Heat Stress” was published on May 25, 2010, in PNAS [Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences]. Authors Steven C. Sherwood and Mathew Huber challenge the assumption that we have the ability to adapt to any possible warming. Basically, their argument is that the human body has an internal core temperature of around 37 degrees Celsius that does not adapt to local climate. Our skin’s temperature is “strongly regulated at 35 degrees or below.”

The resting body generates metabolic heat, which must be carried away primarily by heat conduction and evaporative cooling. This cannot happen if the environment around the body is hotter than the skin temperature. With an increase in global temperature of seven degrees, much of the habitability of the earth is in question. And if it warms eleven or twelve degrees, humans face extinction.

“Irreversible Climate Change Due to Carbon Emissions” by Dr. Susan Solomon and others appeared in PNAS, February 2010. “This paper shows that climate changes that take place due to increases in carbon dioxide concentration are largely irreversible for 1,000 years after emissions stop.”  Sea levels will rise, and dustbowl conditions will be more severe as the amount of atmospheric CO2 rises.

The Newsweek July 11, 2014, cover story is “Seasick – The Disaster We’ve Wrought on the World’s Waters May be Irrevocable.” It is a must read.

So what do these four sources tell us? It seems with rising sea levels and a hotter planet, human survivability is going to be compromised, perhaps, to the point of extinction.

This is my last effort as a columnist for “Read in Ned.” I am a co-author with Dennis Dalton and Phillip Hubbart of a forthcoming book, Let’s Talk: An Anthology of American Values and the Debate on Income and Wealth Disparity – Conservative and Liberal Views. In it, we plead for us, as individuals and as a nation, to deal with our problems with a spirit of moderation and the willingness to sit down with those with whom we greatly disagree. So whether it is global climate change or economic challenges, let’s talk.