18 October 2007 - global warming

In the eyes of the public, global warming is a phenomenon which disappears with every cold snap (swirls before pine) and returns during Indian summer (I have this nagging feeling that I’ve remembered something). On the timescale of the Earth, global warming is just another minor climate wobble, a bit of story development in the geological record but hardly a climactic moment. It is only on the scale of human civilization that climate change is a disaster, and human organizations don’t operate on that scale—they’ll have to lose some weight before they can step on it safely. But don’t worry, we’ll learn how to run our planet as soon as it’s too late.