If you run a Google trend search from 2004 to present (the longest time period available), you'll see that interest peaked in December 2009 (coinciding with the 2008 UN Climate Change Conference, aka Copenhagen Conference) and November 2016 (coinciding with the 2016 UN Climate Change Conference).

Current interest is at roughly a 5 year low.

None of this, of course, supports anything Katie is saying. This is why you should avoid placing any reliance upon the Stranger: its just a collection of folks with little to no experience, training, or skill voicing poorly informed opinions.

@2 I really wish you could edit posts on here: obviously the 2008 reference above is a typo, meant the 2009 conference.

@1: Good one.

Tell us more about this Sam person? Is he stuck in that cold office waiting to get crushed in that impending earthquake?

@1

I'm willing to give it a try at least, but what am I supposed to straddle and ride into the ground while I wave my cowboy hat?

@6, @7 - how about, can you reduce your breeding to zero or one child?

@8,
A willing and horny participant.

@6&7 One thing you did forget is overpopulation. Until the issue of overpopulation is solved everything else you can do really won't matter; you might slow the global warming, though in a very small way, but you won't stop or reverse it. We must get to true zero population growth and then work on reducing it if we are to have a chance.

11, if the impending religious cataclysm known as “late capitalism” comes to a head a couple billion people could starve.

That’d be woke, right?

8, if global order breaks down be sure to ride it into BRICS.

For the salvation of mankind, we must slay BRICS.

@11: But only for those societies that have more that a 2.5% fertility rate.

even at zpg we're hosed.
Same story in every society on the planet now- the holy trinity of modernity- refrigeration, AC, and television. Every household on the planet now demands all 3.
The development is baked in the cake, and if it requires running diesel generators or coal-fired power plants or burning garbage, they are gonna have them. No going back.
We will watch co2 go to 420, 430, 450...pretty much inevitable with that amount of co2 & co2-equivalent loading arctic goes ice-free in late summer soon. Ice-free arctic for a few days in September is one thing, an entire month of an ice-free arctic ocean is another. When arctic ocean is ice-free in July it is pretty well game over for humans on this planet.

We have created a planet 🌎 of oxygen converting machines, everything we do, everything we touch, everything that we use in our lives creates carbon emissions into the atmosphere... I see us at the point of no return. Mainly because the people who care, can’t control it, and the people who control it, like Trump and Scott Pruitt... just don’t care. There was a good concept to use hydrogen to fuel ⛽️ our world 🌎 but those who could make it happen would rather collect money from the rest of us... than protect us. I’m not saying don’t do anything, I’m saying that I believe we are past the point of no return...

The problem with the fertility issue is that you will never pass a law requiring men or women to be sterilized or only allowing them to have one child. It’s what is needed but will never happen... don’t forget the Republican Party believes the Bible teaches us that we need to FILL THE EARTH 🌏 with our offspring... and happy is the man with a quiver full ... religious based politics are very dangerous and that is what we have today in the USA 🇺🇸

I thought humanity crossed the CO2 threshold of what's considered the tipping point years ago. Now, I thought it was more of a matter of how quickly things would fall apart, not so much "if."

@8 beat me to it. (I am admittedly very late to this post.) I assume an outdoor A/C unit, for the rare few that actually have them around here?

There's still lots of people out there who think the rapture's gonna happen in their lifetime. They definitely don't give a shit about trashing the planet their fairy tale god gave them.

@19

There are also a lot of people out there who think Capitalism is going to collapse any day now, finally, after more than a century of continuously predicting it's right around the corner.

And until that happens, they don't give a shit about any of their own behavior contributing to the trashing of the planet, either, because "there is no ethical consumption under Capitalism."

@21,

People predicting the "second coming" have people predicting the fall of capitalism beat by about 1,800 years. But yeah, point taken... people suck at predicting the future of complex events.

Anti-capitalists are trashing the planet?

Not sure I get your comment at that point. Wealthy industrial capitalists have way more power than anti-capitalists to destroy the environment. I suppose greenpeace could be using a better grade of fuel for their boats, but that's barely a drop in the bucket compared to the oil industry pumping billions into lobbying for ending refining regulations.

@22

I guess you've never heard an anticapitalist use the phrase, then, and don't understand what sort of criticism it's meant to shut down.

Count yourself lucky, friend.