The NJ DEP has made some laudable strides this year, but its year-end feel-good memo is a whistle to the graveyard when I consider what's really happening to the climate. Nowhere does the memo mention what we're up against and the significant increase in efforts needed to halt the climate devastation we could face. The memo was an opportunity for new DEP head Mauriello to hint at a vision he'll be able to provide.

Summaries of some recent mainstream science articles on Climate Progress provide a reality dose against the DEP's champaigne toast. For instance:

• The consequences of 5.5°C warming by 2100, which Hadley says is “likely” on our current emissions path are all but unimaginable — mass extinction, devastating ocean acidification, brutal summer-long heat waves, rapidly rising sea levels, widespread desertification. But they are rarely studied or articulated by scientists who can’t imagine humanity would be so stupid as to let this happen. I have tried to piece them together them together from the scientific literature (see “Is 450 ppm (or less) politically possible? Part 0: The alternative is humanity’s self-destruction“).

Let's hope the DEP and Corzine brass use the holidays to catch up on some of the horrifying scientific conclusions that have been published in the last few weeks.

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