There is so much we can and should be doing today and every day. We've got about 16 years until it is game over. That is one of the numbers in the article that grabs your attention, or at least it did mine. 

There are another few numbers that Bill helps us understand. 2 degrees. That is the first one in the article. Scientists, pretty much every one of them, now agree that that is the number we've got to keep below. The next one is 500 something giga something that basically is the total amount of carbon we can dump into the atmosphere and stay below 2 degrees increase in temperature. Okay, so with some fancy math, done by the best scientists we've got, they come up with 16 years. That is the time we've got til we dump the 500 something giga something of carbon into the atmosphere the way we are going.

The last number is some 2,000 something something. This 2,000 something something is the amount of carbon in the oil and gas and coal that companies and countries now have ready and available to dump into the atmosphere. They stand to make trillions of dollars by doing this. You can see why this is such a battle in the world we've created. In economic terms as we define them today it is game over already. 

So, here comes the hardest part of all. We need to change. One of the things I've learned over the years is that this is easy to say, change, but much harder to do...extremely hard when trillions of dollars is telling you not to change. We don't have a choice. We've got less than 16 years to save our children. Start today. Switch to 100% renewable energy. Start getting solar panels on your roof. Switch to an electric car...or stop driving if you can. Buy local food. Switch to local vegetables. Select products that are made of 100% renewable resources. We can do it. I know, absolutely we can, and we can make money and live a better life doing it. This is it folks. We are in this together. Lead where you can. Start making changes now. We can do this if we all encourage each other by our actions.

Thanks to Bill McKibben. Read the article.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719#ixzz2164GVmOM

PS - If anyone tells you that it isn't possible to go 100% renewable, please ask them to contact me. We've done it and I'd be very pleased to explain to anyone interested exactly how. My email address is john.wilson@thesolarvillage.com.

PSS - I've made documentary videos that explain how we made the switch to 100% renewables, how Germany made the switch to renewables profitably, and how, most importantly, we all could make the switch to 100% renewables. I've called them Solar World. You can buy copies here - http://openipub.com/?pub=buy.cfm&ipubid=626 . If you can't afford it, let me know and I'd be glad to make them available to you for free. Send me an email and let me know you read this article.