No one can say exactly what it looks like when a planet looks ill, but it probably looks a lot likeEarth. Never mind what you’ve heard about global warming as a slow-motion emergency that would take decades to play out. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the crisis is upon us. It certainly looked that way last week as the atmospheric bomb that wasCyclone Larry—aCategory 5 storm with wind bursts that reached 180 m.p.h.—exploded through northeasternAustrali
A、It certainly looked that way last year as curtains of fire and dust turned the skies of Indonesia orange, thanks to drought-fueled blazes sweeping the island nation. It certainly looks that way as the sodden wreckage of New Orleans continues to molder, while the waters of theAtlantic gather themselves for a new hurricane season just two months away.Disasters have always been with us and surely always will be.But when they hit this hard and come this fast— when the emergency becomes commonplace—something has gone grievously wrong. That something is global warming.