Back in the '80s and early '90s, CNN appeared to have promise.  Today, not so much. An article at CNN now professes that "the climate is ruined. So can civilization even survive?"  Well, if CNN's current quality is any indication, civilization may have already died. This statement from the CNN piece is worthy of some discussion: The burning of coal, oil, and natural gas has made the planet warmer than it had been since the rise of civilization 10,000 years ago. Civilization was made possible by the emergence about 12,000 years ago of the 'Holocene' epoch, which turned out to be the Goldilocks zone -- not too hot, not too cold. But now, says physicist Stefan Rahmstorf, 'We are catapulting ourselves way out of the Holocene.' This catapult is dangerous, because we have no evidence civilization can long survive with significantly higher temperatures. And yet, the world is on a trajectory that would lead to an increase of 4C...(Read Full Post)