Global Warming
There has been a lot of debate, objections, and misconceptions of global warming also known as climate change. There seems to be a political divide on the issue as well. I don't claim to understand what the debate is really about. I don't even claim I understand everything that could happen. Though I do have some simple observations that makes the out come disturb me.
Before anyone gets all bent out of shape. If you want to believe climate change is not happening and the Earth is not getting warmer. I suggest you stop reading now so you can stay in your world of makebelieve. I'll provide a few links to information I have found and even toss in a few anecdotal observations. Yes, I know anecdotal evidence doesn't mean anything to science. I don't claim it as such. It's simply what I have seen change with in my lifetime.
From the data I've seen it's rather clear the Earth is warming up. Nasa has a few pages on their website about it. They also have an interactive map where you can scroll through the years and watch the temp increase. Climate is normally gaged in periods of over 30 years or more. Doing so makes the normal variability of climate less noisy when you are trying to see a trend. Any global temperature graph you look at showing 30 years or more has a distinct upward trend. Feel free to research it yourself. Please don't just take my word for it.
I'm not a scientist but I do know that when temperature rises ice has a tendency to melt. I'm sure you know this as well. It's kind of a common sense thing. Although, you might not have noticed is what melting ice can do to pools of water. Lets do a little experiment to show what I'm talking about.
Take a glass of ice water and mark on the glass where the water level is. Once the ice has melted you will see the water is in the same place. This is the same thing that happens when sea ice melts at the north pole. Doesn't affect the ocean levels at all because the mass of the water is already in the water.
Now lets take that same glass of water and put some more ice into it. You will see the water level rises. Mark the new water level and let the ice melt. You will see that once again the water level didn't rise after the ice melted. However, it is still higher then the original mark from before you put the fresh ice in. That makes sense because you basically just added water to the class.
What does any of this have to do with the earth getting warmer? That's simple extrapolation of the data we just received from the glass of ice water experiment. Sea ice melting doesn't cause any issues as far as ocean levels go. I'm sure the polar bears don't care for it though. That's kind of wear they live. For us, makes little difference. Glaciers melting on the other hand makes a huge difference. A glaciers' mass is not already in the ocean. So it's like putting more ice into the glass or even just more water for that matter. The ocean levels will go up.
According to wikipedia the Greenland ice sheet (glacier) is about 1,710,000 square kilometres. That's 660,235 sq miles to us oddball Americans. That is a lot of ice but it's nothing compared to Antarctica which has about 98% of all the Earths ice. Once again, according to wikipedia if all the ice melted in Antarctica sea level would rise about 60 m (200 ft). Now that would royally suck for people living anywhere close to the ocean. Huh, maybe it would be a good time to buy some land towards the middle of California now. Wait for a few decades and you have yourself some oceanfront property.
Another thing that seems rather obvious is the local climates would change as well. With the ocean front moving inward we would probably more rain around the edges of the contents. Getting more rain along the new cost means less rain getting into the middle parts of the contents. Probably see more deserts or at least a expansion of the current ones. What was once fertile farmland will no longer be wet enough to grow anything worth eating.
What exactly makes me think farmland will turn to junk? Well, here in the Midwest of the US where I live we are already starting to see this trend. We have had severe droughts through the summers when the crops are trying to grow. The last three harvest have been rather grim. Around my area corn and soybeans are the main crops. While the soybeans have been doing alright, the corn has been dieing before it's harvested. When I take a back road somewhere all I see is brown corn stocks. Yet, we have been flooding in the spring. The precipitation has been about the same really, just at the wrong times.
Here is something to think about. When I was younger, say about 20 years ago, I remember the snow would pile up to the point my friends and I would just dig into it to make a snow fort. Since then I can't remember getting enough snow to do anything with. The winters seemed colder back then and the summers seem to be getting hotter. It may be anecdotal but that is what I have seen. I think if you remember back you will find something similar. If enough people remember it the same way it's no longer anecdotal but eye witness testimony. Sure, still doesn't count for science but it does in a court of law. Does that mean we could sue anyone that says climate change is not real?
Politics, why in the world would the Earth getting hotter be a political issue? Why is it the US is divided by a party line about global warming? Doesn't make any sense. If it was only US scientist saying the Earth is getting hotter you might have an argument for it being a political hoax. Fortunately, it's not just US scientist. We have the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) of scientist from all over the globe saying the same thing.
Could all of these scientist from around the globe possibly have it completely wrong? Sure, everyone once believed the world was flat and we all should know that's completely wrong. I ask you though, is it worth the risk of hundreds, thousands, millions, maybe even billions of human lives? Not to mention all the plants and animals that will either have to adapt or die in such a short time.
I don't think it's worth the risk. I think we should be cutting our CO2 emissions to none as soon as we can. The technology is out there. It's just a matter of getting it into place and everyday use. Until then, save yourself some money. Switch all your light bulbs to energy efficient ones. Turn them off when not using them. Get a new car with the best possible gas millage you can afford. When you're just going down the street walk or ride a bike.
If everyone did just a few minor things to save power to reduce the amount of CO2 produced on their behalf. We just might be able to slow down the heating and possibly prevent the death of so many. Together we can save the earth. No, wait, the earth will be fine. It's us people that are screwed. Let me try this again. Together, we can save ourselves. Yeah, thats better.
Who am I to tell you what you should do? No one, because I'm just a simple guy named rug, but that's what I think.
Before anyone gets all bent out of shape. If you want to believe climate change is not happening and the Earth is not getting warmer. I suggest you stop reading now so you can stay in your world of makebelieve. I'll provide a few links to information I have found and even toss in a few anecdotal observations. Yes, I know anecdotal evidence doesn't mean anything to science. I don't claim it as such. It's simply what I have seen change with in my lifetime.
From the data I've seen it's rather clear the Earth is warming up. Nasa has a few pages on their website about it. They also have an interactive map where you can scroll through the years and watch the temp increase. Climate is normally gaged in periods of over 30 years or more. Doing so makes the normal variability of climate less noisy when you are trying to see a trend. Any global temperature graph you look at showing 30 years or more has a distinct upward trend. Feel free to research it yourself. Please don't just take my word for it.
I'm not a scientist but I do know that when temperature rises ice has a tendency to melt. I'm sure you know this as well. It's kind of a common sense thing. Although, you might not have noticed is what melting ice can do to pools of water. Lets do a little experiment to show what I'm talking about.
Take a glass of ice water and mark on the glass where the water level is. Once the ice has melted you will see the water is in the same place. This is the same thing that happens when sea ice melts at the north pole. Doesn't affect the ocean levels at all because the mass of the water is already in the water.
Now lets take that same glass of water and put some more ice into it. You will see the water level rises. Mark the new water level and let the ice melt. You will see that once again the water level didn't rise after the ice melted. However, it is still higher then the original mark from before you put the fresh ice in. That makes sense because you basically just added water to the class.
What does any of this have to do with the earth getting warmer? That's simple extrapolation of the data we just received from the glass of ice water experiment. Sea ice melting doesn't cause any issues as far as ocean levels go. I'm sure the polar bears don't care for it though. That's kind of wear they live. For us, makes little difference. Glaciers melting on the other hand makes a huge difference. A glaciers' mass is not already in the ocean. So it's like putting more ice into the glass or even just more water for that matter. The ocean levels will go up.
According to wikipedia the Greenland ice sheet (glacier) is about 1,710,000 square kilometres. That's 660,235 sq miles to us oddball Americans. That is a lot of ice but it's nothing compared to Antarctica which has about 98% of all the Earths ice. Once again, according to wikipedia if all the ice melted in Antarctica sea level would rise about 60 m (200 ft). Now that would royally suck for people living anywhere close to the ocean. Huh, maybe it would be a good time to buy some land towards the middle of California now. Wait for a few decades and you have yourself some oceanfront property.
Another thing that seems rather obvious is the local climates would change as well. With the ocean front moving inward we would probably more rain around the edges of the contents. Getting more rain along the new cost means less rain getting into the middle parts of the contents. Probably see more deserts or at least a expansion of the current ones. What was once fertile farmland will no longer be wet enough to grow anything worth eating.
What exactly makes me think farmland will turn to junk? Well, here in the Midwest of the US where I live we are already starting to see this trend. We have had severe droughts through the summers when the crops are trying to grow. The last three harvest have been rather grim. Around my area corn and soybeans are the main crops. While the soybeans have been doing alright, the corn has been dieing before it's harvested. When I take a back road somewhere all I see is brown corn stocks. Yet, we have been flooding in the spring. The precipitation has been about the same really, just at the wrong times.
Here is something to think about. When I was younger, say about 20 years ago, I remember the snow would pile up to the point my friends and I would just dig into it to make a snow fort. Since then I can't remember getting enough snow to do anything with. The winters seemed colder back then and the summers seem to be getting hotter. It may be anecdotal but that is what I have seen. I think if you remember back you will find something similar. If enough people remember it the same way it's no longer anecdotal but eye witness testimony. Sure, still doesn't count for science but it does in a court of law. Does that mean we could sue anyone that says climate change is not real?
Politics, why in the world would the Earth getting hotter be a political issue? Why is it the US is divided by a party line about global warming? Doesn't make any sense. If it was only US scientist saying the Earth is getting hotter you might have an argument for it being a political hoax. Fortunately, it's not just US scientist. We have the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) of scientist from all over the globe saying the same thing.
Could all of these scientist from around the globe possibly have it completely wrong? Sure, everyone once believed the world was flat and we all should know that's completely wrong. I ask you though, is it worth the risk of hundreds, thousands, millions, maybe even billions of human lives? Not to mention all the plants and animals that will either have to adapt or die in such a short time.
I don't think it's worth the risk. I think we should be cutting our CO2 emissions to none as soon as we can. The technology is out there. It's just a matter of getting it into place and everyday use. Until then, save yourself some money. Switch all your light bulbs to energy efficient ones. Turn them off when not using them. Get a new car with the best possible gas millage you can afford. When you're just going down the street walk or ride a bike.
If everyone did just a few minor things to save power to reduce the amount of CO2 produced on their behalf. We just might be able to slow down the heating and possibly prevent the death of so many. Together we can save the earth. No, wait, the earth will be fine. It's us people that are screwed. Let me try this again. Together, we can save ourselves. Yeah, thats better.
Who am I to tell you what you should do? No one, because I'm just a simple guy named rug, but that's what I think.
now... I consider myself a simple mountain man. I live a simple life, surrounded mostly by nature. but I have filled interesting jobs in the past... one being that I worked with my state in their Section 319 Non-Point Source, currently under the Natural Resource Commission, formerly the Soil and Water conservation commission. I know first hand some of the science that is going into water conservation due to things like overuse, pollution (point and non-point) and resource scarcity due to climatological change. our state pours millions into Water Conservation, and there is plenty of evidence that the resources are being affected by climate change. No matter what you want to call it... Global Warming is an issue.
ReplyDeleteI remember being younger, and leaving Kaiserslautern, Germany in late june, and wearing a wool coat and there was a snowstorm (blamed on the Chernobyl disaster, among other things)... I landed in Miami 14? hours later to 98degree heat. a mere three years later I went back to Germany, and suddenly the winters changed... it was hotter in the summer too. I also watched a lake drop more than 40feet in Washington over a few years due to warming. lake Alder. we used to sit at the dam and fish off of it...
we should be doing SOMETHING about the issue... I have such a problem with heat... I can never stay cool in the summer. but I feel it will be getting worse long before it gets better.
nice write up, Rug.