How scared should we be?

It's important not to be an alarmist, but it's important to be alarmed, Copeland says.

Question: Are we past the tipping point?
Jim Moriarty: No, I don't think we're past a tipping point because you'd have to define "tipping point." I would define "tipping point" as obliteration of civilization. I don't think we're there. We're still here but I think we're playing with some loaded guns. There is people that are routinely now talking about will culture survive this millennia, this hundred years, will culture actually exist? There's scientists in the last couple days that I've interacted with that have talked about the entire polar ice cap, the Arctic ice cap, melting within 35 years, everything, everything. And you're starting to see all those signs with Russian subs and everything else, and people are starting to say, "Okay. Who owns this water?" and everything else. So it's going to throw off an entire set of other things. In China a lot of the glaciers that actually contribute to the jet streams and define all the jet streams are all being melted. So it's a big issue. It will impact everyone. I think outside of wars, which would also be promoted by this kind of instability, our civilization can adapt for a while. We're going to have to. That's the cards that we have and it's the cards that we're leaving our kids but it's not going to be easy and hopefully there won't be any wars that drag things in to other categories.
Recorded on: 9/27/07