D.A.'s Wild Ride

We need to prepare for the destruction that is likely to occur as a result of our negligence. The selfish and callously contrarian defenders of pollution ought to be ashamed of themselves and should foot the bill for our adaptation. However you parse the data, there’s no good reason NOT to strive for a more modest human footprint, more modest consumption, taking only what we need as a global society, and respecting our succeeding generations. I resent the baby boomers and their crippling extortion of our future during the past 30 years. I hope your tax cuts were worth it.

The level of the most important heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, has passed a long-feared milestone, scientists reported Friday, reaching a concentration not seen on the earth for millions of years.

Scientific instruments showed that the gas had reached an average daily level above 400 parts per million — just an odometer moment in one sense, but also a sobering reminder that decades of efforts to bring human-produced emissions under control are faltering.

The best available evidence suggests the amount of the gas in the air has not been this high for at least three million years, before humans evolved, and scientists believe the rise portends large changes in the climate and the level of the sea.