The above capped article comes from WashingtonPost.com (here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/14/AR2009021401757_pf.html
) and was posted back on February 15, 2009. However, I felt is was
important enough to blog about it to make sure people were aware.
See, in typical human fashion, it seems like scientists haven't been
thinking deeply enough about how Climate Change is occurring. Up
until recently, scientists have been fixating on what they say are the
causes of Climate Change (ie carbon emissions from fossil fuels
causing the greenhouse effect, warming up our planet and screwing up
weather and climate patterns). The thing is, they didn't think about
what the effects of the effects are.
In this WaPo article they begin to talk about this. Here's an excerpt:
Unexpectedly large amounts of carbon dioxide are being
released into the atmosphere as the result of "feedback loops" that
are speeding up natural processes. Prominent among these, evidence
indicates, is a cycle in which higher temperatures are beginning to
melt the arctic permafrost, which could release hundreds of billions
of tons of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, said
several scientists on a panel at the meeting.
The permafrost holds 1 trillion tons of carbon, and as much as 10
percent of that could be released this century, Field said. Along with
carbon dioxide melting permafrost releases methane, which is 25 times
more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
"It's a vicious cycle of feedback where warming causes the release of
carbon from permafrost, which causes more warming, which causes more
release from permafrost," Field said.
The Field quoted at the end of that excerpt was Christopher Field,
founding director of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global
Ecology at Stanford University.
If you want to learn more about this, you can check out the rest of
that article. You can also check out a cartoon I posted on
thepete.com back on January 13, 2009 that explains the whole Climate
Change tipping-point thing in a fairly simple, straightforward
way.
Of course, unlike religion, there are no absolutes here--these
scientists could have it wrong. They're only human, after all.
Still, there's a lot of science that supports all of this (not to
mention basic logic). The thing that worries me, though, is that
there are still a lot of people who fixate on the "man made" part of
Climate Change. They think that we humans don't bear any
responsibility for causing the changes that are occurring on our only
planet. To these people I say this:
Who cares?
The fact of the matter is that glaciers ARE melting. Our climate IS changing.
And guess what: getting off of fossil fuels, limiting pollution and
waste is GOOD for us. Not only does it help the environment (the
medium in which we LIVE and BREATHE in) but it also helps the planet
politically. Sure, it may harm economic interests, but which is more
important to you? Your money or your life?
Plus, with this whole new "tipping-point" thing, we need to start
thinking about how we're going to deal with these changes, not with
how to stop them--that's the real issue here. I don't give a crap
which side of the political fence you sit on. It doesn't matter if
cars did it or factories, or if it's the sun--the climate is changing
and it just may get really messed up fast. Now, that little cartoon
seemed to think we can still stop this doomsday-ish scenario from
happening, but I think we really need to be prepared to fail.
Come on, it's not like we humans have been doing so well, lately.
You want to trust the government to get it right when they screwed up
Iraq, Afghanistan and New Orleans so royal?
Or should we trust the free market to not hike up the price of water-wings
when our coastal cities begin to flood?
My solution? I think I'm going to go check out Craigslist.org NYC
section to look at boats for sale. I've always wanted to live on a
boat! :\
