There is a pretty stunning article by Bill McKibbin in the current Rolling Stone<\/em> that I really wish everyone would read. It\u2019s a long article, but if you\u2019ll take the 15 or 20 minutes to actually read and digest the material, I think you\u2019ll have a new perspective on what the world is facing.<\/p>\n Here is a teaser on the current impact of global warming:<\/p>\n \u201cIf the pictures of those towering wildfires in Colorado haven\u2019t convinced you, or the size of your AC bill this summer, here are some hard numbers about climate change: June broke or tied 3,215 high-temperature records across the United States. That followed the warmest May on record for the Northern Hemisphere \u2013 the 327th consecutive month in which the temperature of the entire globe exceeded the 20th-century average, the odds of which occurring by simple chance were 3.7 x 10-99, a number considerably larger than the number of stars in the universe.<\/p>\n Meteorologists reported that this spring was the warmest ever recorded for our nation \u2013 in fact, it crushed the old record by so much that it represented the \u201clargest temperature departure from average of any season on record.\u201d The same week, Saudi authorities reported that it had rained in Mecca despite a temperature of 109 degrees, the hottest downpour in the planet\u2019s history\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ever wonder why the Koch brothers have become so hyperactive on the political stage? McKibbin posits one\u00a0possible reason:<\/p>\n \u201cLeft to our own devices, citizens might decide to regulate carbon and stop short of the brink; according to a recent poll, nearly two-thirds of Americans would back an international agreement that cut carbon emissions 90 percent by 2050. But we aren\u2019t left to our own devices. The Koch brothers, for instance, have a combined wealth of $50 billion, meaning they trail only Bill Gates on the list of richest Americans. They\u2019ve made most of their money in hydrocarbons, they know any system to regulate carbon would cut those profits, and they reportedly plan to lavish as much as $200 million on this year\u2019s elections. In 2009, for the first time, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce surpassed both the Republican and Democratic National Committees on political spending; the following year, more than 90 percent of the Chamber\u2019s cash went to GOP candidates, many of whom deny the existence of global warming. Not long ago, the Chamber even filed a brief with the EPA urging the agency not to regulate carbon \u2013 should the world\u2019s scientists turn out to be right and the planet heats up, the Chamber advised, \u201cpopulations can acclimatize to warmer climates via a range of behavioral, physiological and technological adaptations.\u201d As radical goes, demanding that we change our physiology seems right up there.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What do you think?<\/p>\n