Big Monkey Talk

Back in the Before Times, George W. Bush justified not doing anything about emission standards and climate change by suggesting that in the future there would be wonderful technology that would clean everything up at the push of a button; the nicest, shiniest button ever. No one ever asked how much that button would cost, but he implied you could pick it up at a Radio Shack for $4.95, or $4.27 at the Presidents Day Sale.

Here we are in the future, Radio Shack is gone and that button has not been installed.

ABC News, 8/7/18:
The record for the largest wildfire in California history fell on Monday after just eight months as the Mendocino Complex Fire passed the Thomas Fire, from last December, to set the new mark for most acres burned.

Business Insider, 8/7/18:
Earth Overshoot Day , the point in a year at which we use up a year's worth of resources, has been steadily moving forward in time since GFN first started tracking it. In 1970, we "overshot" Earth's resource budget by only 2 days — Overshoot Day fell on December 29, according to HSBC. That date has been pushed up by almost five months since then.

Phys.Org, 8/6/18:
If polar ice continues to melt, forests are slashed and greenhouse gases rise to new highs—as they currently do each year—the Earth will pass a tipping point.

Crossing that threshold "guarantees a climate 4-5 Celsius (7-9 Fahrenheit) higher than pre-industrial times, and sea levels that are 10 to 60 meters (30-200 feet) higher than today," cautioned scientists in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-08-earth-hothouse-state.html#jCp