A Heartbeat of Unobtainium

Some will remember that "unobtainium" is a word used by scientists as a humorous reference to things not yet obtainable.

While some scientists worry about a mission to Mars, regular readers of The Ecocosmology Blog know that this blog worries first about the mission to Earth.

We worry because that mission to the Earth is failing.

We have cited to research recently that debunks climate change and global warming deniers.

We are concerned by such denial because it is a dementia which prevents a remedy in dangerous situations.

Carte Blanche disregard for the work of scientists who have impeccable credentials, and the obvious tons of evidence they cite to, is reckless because it often diminishes the reputation of the entire realm of science in the minds of the public.

For example scientists inform us that the Gulf is still contaminated to the degree that seafood is generally not safe to consume, yet politically motivated government officials, who appear willing to risk the health of the public, quarrel with these scientists who are warning of an existing danger.

We are adding yet another post which offers yet another study that strikes at the heart of the arguments the deniers have historically used to bolster their denial:

The troposphere, the lower part of the atmosphere closest to the Earth, is warming and this warming is broadly consistent with both theoretical expectations and climate models, according to a new scientific study that reviews the history of understanding of temperature changes and their causes in this key atmospheric layer.

...

In the 1990s, observations did not show the troposphere, particularly in the tropics, to be warming, even though surface temperatures were rapidly warming. This lack of tropospheric warming was used by some to question both the reality of the surface warming trend and the reliability of climate models as tools. This new paper extensively reviews the relevant scientific analyses -- 195 cited papers, model results and atmospheric data sets -- and finds that there is no longer evidence for a fundamental discrepancy and that the troposphere is warming.

(Science Daily, emphasis added). The mission to the Earth is failing because the toxins of power corrupt the minds of politicians who then care more and more about their own election chances, but less and less about the public safety and health.

This blog has posts regularly which point out that if the mission to Earth fails, the missions to other worlds are going to fail too.