I’m surprised at the degree of resistance that’s out there concerning global warming. I can understand some doubt as to whether we’re helping cause it, but it’s pretty hard to say the earth is not heating up. Annual average temperatures are rising, that is to say, the globe is warming. It just is. I think we’re helping cause some of it. CO2 levels are higher than they ever have been, ever, and an increase in CO2 has always preceded global warming cycles. Plus, every bit of published material that’s actually based on research is in agreement that humans are helping to cause global warming. Really, 100% of scholarly material, that’s not an exaggeration. Popular media, on the other hand, has plenty of disagreement.
Well, whatever. I think we’re helping cause it and that we should really, really try to slow it down a bit. But even if our cars and coal power plants aren’t heating up the earth, they’re still causing a lot of smog. You can see it in the air. It causes cancer and asthma. It’s bad, so we should try to clean it up anyway, even if it’s not melting Greenland.
Call me crazy.
Also - and this is my favorite - it’s interesting to me how many people instantly cite unusually cold weather as evidence against global warming. “It snowed in Louisiana! It’s all a hoax!” Global warming doesn’t mean it gets hotter everywhere. It means weather gets redistributed and currents get redirected. When the Greenland ice cap melts (and it really is melting, a lot) it will change ocean currents, which will mean freezing cold for some places and blazing hot for others. Everything moves around, including major rain belts and other relatively dependable weather phenomena. A warmer earth = snow in Louisiana.
Storms tend to get bigger, too.
No, I really couldn’t think of anything better to write about.
