Global Climate Change?

Global warming is just a new fad to take your cars away right? Wrong. There is nothing new about it. As early as the 1890’s scientists were speculating about the effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide on the temperature of the Earth. In 1938 G.S. Callendar first proposed that the Earth was already warming due to carbon dioxide emissions and produced evidence to demonstrate it. But not many people paid any attention. The advent of digital computers in the 1950’s meant that more thorough modeling of the atmosphere could be done. Some of the mechanisms that were thought to offset the carbon effect, were shown to not be valid. New alarms began to be raised. In the late 50’s and early 60’s scientists started explaining this problem to the general public. But the idea was slow to catch on. Those who got concerned about such things, tended to be more concerned with the effects of pollution which could cause things like lung disease, cancer, and acid rain. These were things the general public could grasp without a degree in physics. The scientific community had been skeptical about global warming due to carbon dioxide emissions. But as more modeling, experiments, and observations were done, they became more convinced. But it was not a quick consensus. Scientists never do anything quickly. By the 1990’s nearly all the skeptical scientists had been converted. The evidence was overwhelming.

One specific study from 1987 was telling: Scientists drilled down into the ice of the arctic to see the relationship between geologic warming periods and carbon dioxide levels. They did indeed find a relationship. During the ice ages the carbon dioxide parts per million got as low as 180 and reached as high as 280 parts per million during the warm periods. At the same time, they measured the current carbon dioxide in the air over the ice and saw that it was then 350 parts per million. Nowhere in the geologic record had the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ever been so high.

In the 1970’s There was a concern about fossil fuels, but the concern that was on most people’s mind back then was that we would run out of them. It is a finite resource after all. The OPEC oil embargo showed just how vulnerable the west was to shortages. The panic from that time led to conservation and fuel efficiency, but it also led to more exploration and development of new techniques for getting at hard to reach oil reserves. Consequently, we are no longer so worried about running out of fossil fuels. In fact, they have become cheap. That is part of the problem.

One of the things about global warming is that it can change the climate in ironical ways. All that energy fed into the atmosphere changes wind patterns and currents. It destabilized the polar vortex so we find blizzards reaching the deep south in America. We see more and more extreme weather. I have lived on this Earth for sixty years and never heard of a tornado in December . . . until recently. Things are happening now that have never happened before. We are seeing more extremes, Extreme drought in some places, extreme rain in others, more hurricanes and tornados and just plain weirdness.

Anyone who still believes global warming is a hoax, is a dunderhead.  Plain and simple. They have chosen to believe those with a vested interest in the status quo rather than all the scientist in the world. Scientists have been predicting this for a long time. Now that it is actually happening, you do not get to declare they were wrong.  Science is the way we come to understand the world. Science has created the modern world. Of course, that’s not all good. Every advancement has side effects. Still, if side effects are bad, that doesn’t make the science wrong. It just means that what we do with it needs to be thought out.  Science doesn’t care if you are liberal or conservative, or what political party or religion you are. Science is just science. It is all about getting at the truth. I said anyone who believes it is a hoax is a dunderhead. But there aren’t really as many of them as you might think. Most of the people who call it a hoax don’t really believe that. They know that global warming is true, but they want to make their money or votes, or get their subsidies from the oil companies. Even the oil companies know the climate is changing due to carbon dioxide. For a number of years they have all been making plans to mitigate the effects . . . for their shareholders.  

[If I haven’t driven you away yet, my novel Star Liner, (which has nothing to do with climate change) is now available in paperback or as an e-book through Amazon, or the other usual online sources]

Star Liner