Global Warming, Our Immediate Responsibility
January is a good month. It’s a month that is the human symbol of starting over. Out with the old, in with the new. This January was particularly exciting for us here in the US, as we ushered in a new era of progressive politics with almost a little too much pomp and circumstance. But underneath the excitement lies a particularly disconcerting truth. We still have a nation to fix.
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I like getting big things out of the way, so here it is. According to Susan Solomon, scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, once global warming sets in, it isn’t going away. The voice on NPR told me with such solemnity that I assumed that we had already lost the war with Global Warming. No matter how evenly I accelerated my car, it would no longer matter because the damage was done. Once I stopped hyperventilating I realized that there was more to the story, and the thoughtful voice informed me that the effects haven’t reached the point of no return yet. The oceans are currently padding the effects of global warming, holding it in check indefinitely. According to Solomon, the oceans will be able to hold off the siege of carbon dioxide for some time, but there are more immediate problems at hand.
According to Solomon’s study published in the Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences, not immediately curtailing our carbon emissions could create permanent dust-bowl conditions in the U.S. Southwest as well as the Mediterranean. I immediately thought of all the wonderful French wines I wouldn’t be able to try if that happened and subsequently panicked until I was informed that even this could take decades. I let out a nervous sigh of relief, knowing that this news just adds to the urgency of our battle for the atmosphere.
“We’re used to thinking about pollution problems as things that we can fix. Smog, we just cut back and everything will be better later. Or haze, you know, it’ll go away pretty quickly,” Solomon said of cleaning up our current mess. “People have imagined that if we stopped emitting carbon dioxide that the climate would go back to normal in 100 years. What we’re showing here is that’s not right. It’s essentially an irreversible change.”
It’s still rather unsettling that we can’t get a better picture of what kind of time frame we’re working on here. Global warming isn’t exactly priority number one on everyone’s list, which is understandable considering our current economic meltdown. A Rasmussen Report as well as a Pew Research Center Pole taken around inauguration time showed a general cooling in global warming concern. Again, the current economic crisis calls for immediate attention, but how much longer will it be until global warming gets immediate attention?
Fortunately, we’re already beginning to see a drastic reversal of climate change policies as President Obama opened the door for states to regulate their own emissions (something California has been chomping at the bit to do). Of course I’m worried that global warming apathy will continue and lead to irreparable repercussions, but at the same time I’m optimistic. The Pew pole showed that in general, environmental issues are important to the American public, and that right now we’re just experiencing a lull. On the other hand the Rasmussen Report showed again that the American public is becoming increasingly divided along party lines, especially when dealing with the environment (21% of questioned Republicans believe that global warming is being induced by human activity).
President Obama has made it a priority of his to curtail global warming, and he hired an energy secretary who knows his science to prove it, but we can’t forget that our planet is our responsibility. No matter how many laws are enacted or how much reach the EPA is granted, it will still ultimately be up to us how far we allow global warming to go before it’s stomped out.
Sources:
The New York Times (There is a nice little graph here that shows how America’s concerns have changed over the years)
National Public Radio
Thanks to CarbonNYC for the picture (via Flickr creative commons).
And in case you missed it, our Fireside Chat for the week.
OMG people do actually read and listen to something besides CNN. I always find it hilarious when people tell me how the planet is heating up. I live in Mobile, AL one of the hotter parts of the US and we just had two summers in a row where the temp never went above 96 Degrees. When I was a kid back in the 1980’s it was very common for the temp to top 100. I am sure everyone remembers all the press the frying eggs on side walk received in the 80’s. Yet I am supposed to believe a bunch of agenda driven media. I am all for lowering air pollution and promoting better cleaner energy and transportation, but enough with the chicken littel routine.
My God people. I may have to declare a moratorium on debating climate change on our sites because it’s obvious that nothing will ever be resolved.
Our immediate responsibility to defend ourselves and our children from Gore’s and Obama’s global warming scam.
Man-made Global Warming is a hoax that threatens our future and the future of our children. Václav Klaus, president of the European Union, is right when he states that “environmentalism is the new communism and climate change is a myth.”
In agreement with Klaus, more than 650 international scientists dissent over the man-made global warming claims. They are more than 12 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media-hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers. http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=2674e64f-802a-23ad-490b-bd9faf4dcdb7
Additionally, more than 31,000 American scientists have signed onto a petition that states, “There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate…” http://www.petitionproject.org/index.html
“Progressive” (communist) politicians like Obama seem determined to force us to swallow the man-made global warming scam. We need to defend ourselves from the UN and these politicians, who threaten our future and the future of our children. Based on a lie, they have already wasted millions and plan to increase taxes, limit development, and enslave us.
If not stopped, the global warming scam will enrich the scammers (Gore and Obama’ Wall Street friends), increase the power of the U.N. and communists like Obama, and multiply poverty and servitude for the rest of us.
Antonio,
Please, put down the paranoia pipe and communicate in a way that normal people can relate to. As a born diehard skeptic, I’m fully willing to debate the politics of global warming and the problem with the politicization of science, but not with nutjobs that claim Obama is a communist or who categorically state that climate change is a myth.
Oversimplification and pandering don’t solve problems.
I realized after I published this that it would probably attract more negativity than anything, seeing that we can all bend facts and throw out statistics to fit our own agendas. Where you are a lifelong skeptic Nick, I am just a lifelong worrier, so I felt compelled to write about it. I couldn’t help but notice the coincidence between the polls as well as the research, which I can’t say that there is causation, but I can safely say it’s in fact kind of weird.
Even if I don’t agree with you, thanks for your comments! I appreciate the comments that are mature enough to state their points without calling me a communist or an idiot.
~anthony
To Susan Solomon:
If you said that, once global warming sets in, it isn’t going away…it’s irreversible, please explain why this is so.
John Hollenberg said “So the WEATHER is temporarily cooler. This has little to do with CLIMATE, which involves periods of at least 15 years. Look at the average temperature worldwide for 2008, and compare it to the average 15 years ago…”
Sorry, John, climatic cycles on earth last much longer than 15 years. Most scientists would set the number of short period climatic cycles at 60-70 years. Longer term climatic cycles last hundreds to thousands of years. I doubt that anyone has sufficient data to determine what effect the long cycle periods portend for humanity, but the short period cycles say that we have reached the peak of the current warming cycle and we will likely have a cooling period for the next 30-35 years.
Do I think we should ignore climate change? No, but let’s not go overboard and institute idiotic - yes, idiotic - laws, because some community of scientists and environmental extremists have seen the sky falling. Our approach should be well thought out, environmentally appropriate, and economically feasible. Covering Greenland with reflective aluminum foil is not a solution, although you can go to Discovery and see that it is “being studied”.
Alternative energy is a good start, but let’s face it, if Ted Kennedy doesn’t want his view messed up with wind turbines, and we don’t want to cover the entire state of Texas to produce Hydrogen for Hondas, we need to perhaps incorporate known safe technologies - such as nuclear. Let’s quite wasting our nature gas generating electricity. Electrical gas fired generators are bleeding us dry of our nature gas - it’s a waste.
Aw come on Nick, fighting(oops debating) is fun. : )
Steve,
I have been wondering how people can deny the rapidly accumulating science about climate change induced by carbon emissions. The answer: there is research to suggest that political ideology blinds one segment of the population to the science. See this discussion of the Rasmussen poll:
http://climateprogress.org/2009/02/03/rasmussen-reports-global-warming-denial-gop-polling/#more-4722
global warming scare is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making