An Unintimidating Truth

"But it does occur to me that the discussion of global warming is simultaneously overblown and under-serious. Let's face it: If we really, truly believed that New York City was going to be under water in less than 50 years, we would move heaven and earth to prevent that from happening. But we don't, so we don't."

Cait Murphy thinks that discussion of global warming is overblown? She points out the real problem with the global warming debate and doesn't even realize it! People really don't take it seriously. I can drive 10 minutes from my house to the beach and the shoreline will look exactly like it did yesterday. "And they say the oceans are rising...pshhh" is what many would think. This is an unfortunate consequence of the gradual manifestation of the effects of global warming. We don't see penguins lying dead in our streets or New York being consumed by the Atlantic Ocean, so it is easy for us to casually ignore the warnings. We may not believe that New York city will be underwater in less than 50 years, even though we maybe should. Then we should ask "why don't we believe that" and from there we ask "what steps should we take to inform people of the real gravity of the situation". If we wait until the real effects of global warming are knocking on our front door, it might be to late to stop it.