OK! Enough of the homespun ancient memories.
I't's time for a good rant. Like last week, when I was at the checkout at a grocery store. The cashier, a woman in her late 60's-early 70's, remarked on the cool weather and then added with a smirk, "So much for Al Gore's global warming!"
DUH! As if a cool week in the middle of one continent for a single June is proof that it doesn't exist! I responded, "The earth's weather cycles are just really screwed up." She scowled at me. I wasn't validating her ignorance.
I watch a lot of documentaries and I believe them when they show how the cold fresh water melting from the polar regions cool and distort the oceanic gulf stream that powers the weather systems worldwide. This cooling also derails the jet stream so transatlantic flights can take much longer, and again, weather patterns get screwed up. Add to that the hole in the Ozone layer, the rapid growth of the Sahara Desert and the ballooning hurricane seasons, and we've got trouble, right here on Planet Earth! Denying it won't get us anywhere.
The last couple of days have been really hot in the middle of my continent. It's supposed to get hotter. So to those who would blame Al Gore (or me) for screwed up weather, let's support those who are trying to do something about it. Seriously, we can't put it off any longer.
5 comments:
Here Here !!!!
The scientists really did the world a disfavor by calling it "global warming". Most people think that means everywhere on earth is getting hotter.
Wrong!
The correct term - and one the scientists are now using - is "climate change". Some places are getting warmer, while other places are actually cooling off. Some places are getting more rain and/or snow than ever before. Others are seeing their precipitation decline at a frightening speed.
Overall, more places are warming up than cooling off. That is how the scientists came up with their original name. Overall the earth is warming.
Part of this process is, in fact, cyclical and natural. Unfortunately, in creating our machines which release so much pollution back into the atmosphere, and increasing the size of beef herds and such, while deforesting vast areas of the planet, we have sped the geological process up.
We've created a mess I don't believe we can fix. For one thing, I don't believe we have the will to do it.
Bevie, I saw a film at the Science museum about the Nile River. I do believe it said the Nile was once a highly forested and lush region. But humanity, Egyptians, cut down all the trees, and with wind erosion we now have the Sahara desert. Sound familiar ??
That is true all over the globe.
From New Zealand to Easter Island to North America to the Amazon, we stupid parasitic humans devour resources like tapeworms in and on the planet.
You're right Bevie, too few people care to get everybody to make the drastic changes.
If you haven't already read it, I recommend Jared Diamond's book Collapse for some sobering, historical perspective on all this.
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