By: Hrafnkell HaraldssonNov. 12th, 2012more from Hrafnkell Haraldsson

If any good came out of Hurricane Sandy, it is that it generated open discussion about global warming. It was pressed home, in catastrophic fashion, that this is not your grandparents’ planet. People like James Hansen of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies have been warning us for awhile now. Sandy was an exclamation point on those warnings.

As the Climate Reality Project says,

Let’s face it: The weather outside is different than it used to be. Record heat waves make it a chore to go outside. Floods and rainstorms damage our homes and cities. Crops wilt under severe droughts. Hot, dry weather sparks widespread fires.

Will the GOP finally acknowledge that anthropogenic global warming is not a liberal plot? Probably not. But if even Democrats embrace the threat, and especially moderates; if the media will finally begin reporting on the threat, we might be able to generate enough support for science to finally wrest control from superstition and corporate greed.

The earth is being raped.

God isn’t going to protect us.

If the Republicans have their way, neither will man.

The Climate Reality Project presents the Dirty Weather Report, and in the process, a very good application of humor.

Dirty energy has created a world of Dirty Weather. Today, climate disruption affects us all. And it will take all of us together to solve it. Join us for 24 Hours of Reality: The Dirty Weather Report, when together we will stand up and demand real solutions to the climate crisis.

The Dirty Weather Report will be “a live online broadcast with former Vice President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore, beginning on November 14 at 8 p.m. EST and concluding on November 15 at 7 p.m. EST.”

It is critical that humans understand the impact we have had and continue to have on our planet. We are going to have to find ways to live with the results of the damage we have already done. It won’t instantly go away even if we begin to take action today.

The consequences of doing nothing?

Look at this summer’s droughts. Look at Hurricane Sandy. Look at the fires in Colorado.

It’s time for humans to do something. If we can overcome conservative millions in a presidential election, we can overcome their money in the fight against global warming. We have a president who still speaks of “clean coal” as though there could ever be such a thing. We haveto convince him otherwise. We have to elect people who recognize the threat and who are willing to endure ridicule to act.

We cannot let greed, stupidity, and denialism rob us, and our children, of our future.

Photo from Inhabitat.com