Thank-you for your consideration, it is an all too infrequent amenity in the discussion of this topic, where incivility tends to taint both sides of the exchange all too often. I'm trying to tie up a lot of loose ends (business and family) before a mid-summer get away,...but I know you aren't interested in that.
So, lets dive into the subject of the quest.
You seem to have a desire for precisely that which I was going to offer to you. Namely, a sampling of the mainstream science and scientific opinion/consideration framework which has shaped and guided my personal considerations and understandings of climate change and its potential impacts upon our world, our civilization, and our species.
In the search for a clear method of presenting an initial response, I've settled on using my own initial quoted statements to categorize the information. That being said, sampling through my personal reading research links this morning, I think I've managed to come up with a representative collection of references that represent the types of peer-reviewed studies, researches and literature that support and in general have shaped my considerations and understandings.
enough of the tell, on to the show:
*
"...we are facing the dramatic alteration of our planetary environment,..."
West Antarctic ice sheet and CO2 greenhouse effect: a threat of disaster (1978) -- http://tintin.colorado.edu/CVEN5718/Readings/Mercer_Nature_1978.pdf
Target Atmospheric CO2: Where should Humanity Aim? -- http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0804/0804.1126.pdf
Supporting Material for – “Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?” -- http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0804/0804.1135.pdf
Do Global Warming and Climate Change Represent a serious Threat to our welfare and environment -- http://holocene.meteo.psu.edu/shared/articles/MannSocialPhilos09.pdf
Ecology Extinction and Evolution in the Brave New Ocean --http://www.pnas.org/content/105/suppl.1/11458.full.pdf
"...the potential collapse of our civilization..."
Global Climate Change, War, and Population decline in Recent Human History --http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2148270/pdf/zpq19214.pdf
A Slippery Slope: How Much Global Warming Constitutes “Dangerous Anthropogenic Interference”? -- http://www.bren.ucsb.edu/academics/courses/203/Readings/SlipperySlope%2017Jun04v21.pdf
Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises (starting focus on the executive summary) -- http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10136&page=R1#
Climate Change: Lessons for our Future from the Distant Past -- http://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/Research/wp/pdf/paper485.pdf
On Modeling and interpreting the economics of Catastrophic Climate Change – http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/3693423/Weitzman_OnModeling.pdf?sequence=2
"...and the deaths of most of the animal species on our planet (as well as significant portion, if not a majority, of our own species)..."
Are We in the midst of the Sixth Mass Extinction? --http://www.pnas.org/content/105/suppl.1/11466.full.pdf
Global Catastrophes in Perspective: Asteroid impacts vs Climate Change -- https://cfwebprod.sandia.gov/cfdocs/CCIM/docs/AGU-2008-poster_SAND2009-1143P.pdf
Extinction Risk from Climate Change -- http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/83/1/thomascd1.pdf
Climate Change Hastens population extinctions -- http://www.pnas.org/content/99/9/6070.full.pdf
Climate Change and Habitat Destruction: a Deadly Anthropogenic Cocktail – http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/270/1514/467.full.pdf
Predicting Extinctions as a result of Climate Change -- http://ddr.nal.usda.gov/bitstream/10113/28343/1/IND43864342.pdf
Climate Change, species-area curves and the extinction crisis -- http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/361/1465/163.full.pdf
Managing the Health Effects of Climate Change --http://www.abuhrc.org/Documents/Lancet%20Climate%20Change.pdf
A long-term association between global temperature and biodiversity, origination and extinction in the Fossil Record -- http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/275/1630/47.full.pdf
Global Warming May Be a Graver Public Health Threat Than Nuclear War. Part 1 – Getting Your Attention --http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1681951/
Climate Change and Human Health Risks and Responses -- http://www.who.int/globalchange/publications/climchange.pdf
Again, these are far from a complete and encompassing set of references, but they are a rather interesting selection of the types of mainstream science researches and qualified considerations that have guided and shaped my understandings of the consequences, impacts, and potentials inherent to a process that is really only starting to unfold.
If you wish to further discuss any particular reference or category of consideration, I will do my best to express my understandings, opinions and considerations, and support with reference and/or reasoned argument those expressions.
((By-the-by, will be a bit busy till we actually head out for a bit of R&R, but I should manage to drop in for a bit once a day or so, at least until we leave. I get the email copies of board postings on my Palm, but I find I can barely communicate effectively with all ten fingers, when it comes to texting (or board responses from the Palm), I'm literally all thumbs!))
*- whether anyone agrees or disagrees with any elements of any of the offered publications is largely irrelevent (IMO) to the issue of demonstrating that there is a traditional mainstream science acceptance of these referenced writings, and perspectives like mine, which are accurately reflective of those scientific understandings and considerations.
