For those who love New England's mild summer weather, scientists have some advice: enjoy it while you can.
If greenhouse gas emissions continue on their current course, Massachusetts may feel more like sultry South Carolina by century's end, researchers said on Wednesday in a report on clear signs of global warming in the US Northeast.
I think it's amusing how, to many, 2100 seems hopelessly remote. Immersed in a mainstream addicted to "major issues" like fleeting political scandals, I suppose it's all-too-easy to regard the end of the 21st century as a distant future of no practical importance.
But 2100 is just around the corner, less than a human lifetime away -- and we're living longer.
It's fashionable for climate change researchers to point out that it's our moral imperative to make the planet livable for our children and grandchildren. And they're right. But what about those of us alive right now? It's not at all inconceivable that someone reading this post in 2006 could be around to experience the brave new world of the 22nd century -- if not the 23rd, if we make predicted strides in genetic therapy and molecular nanotechnology. I can even reasonably hope to be that someone, even if that entails taking on a new form.
So if the idea of saving the planet doesn't stir you -- if you think of tackling global warming as a task suited for unspecified "future generations" -- think twice. Because the clock's ticking faster than ever.
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