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Chances are, if you've been looking in the paper during the past few years, you've seen headlines similar to the ones I came up with in a few moments of research. Disturbing shouts for our attention like "Melting ice caps and disappearing glaciers", "Temperatures: warmest since Christ?", "Storm events: has the weather gone mad?", "The culprit gases", and "Sea levels could rise up to 1m by 2100." (all headlines taken directly from www.megastories.com/warming)
Of course we all find such lines at least mildly disturbing, and even more so when we begin to read the accompanying articles. But do we really know what they mean? We know that things are heating up and our earth's climate is changing -for the worst.
For those of you who don't know, "climate change" is our way of saying that the planet is heating up. Climate change is a direct result of the greenhouse effect (a "natural phenomenon" caused by "certain gases [that] trap the sun's rays, just like panes of glass, and raise the temperature of the earth."). While the greenhouse effect has been a normal phenomenon in the past, we are speeding it up and throwing it out of balance by the carbon dioxide (what all living organisms exhale), methane, nitrous oxide and other gases we add to the atmosphere. Human activity is heating up our planet -and fast. Everything from the flatulence of large herds of cattle to the destruction of our rainforests contributes to our changing climate. Other examples of detrimental substances are the stuff we put in cross-trainer heels, laughing gas, emissions from our cars and large factories and any burning of fossil fuels -coal, oil, and gasoline. The destruction of our rainforests is also made more sinister because they help to reverse or balance these negative emissions.
The effect of climate change is not merely warmer temperatures. While many of us think "thank god! I'm so sick of winter!" and dream of longer seasons for sunbathing and trying out our bikinis, climate change has far graver undertones than we suspect. The following are only a few examples of the effects of our changing climate: rising sea levels (between 10 cm and 1metre in the twenty-first century); melting glaciers and ice caps; disappearing species; desertification of rainforests (they turn into deserts); more frequent and intense "natural" disasters and the disappearance of Antarctica. (all collected from articles on the website www.megastories.com/warming) All of these have secondary effects. The melting of glaciers and ice caps, as well as the fact that sea levels rise on their own as they expand with warmer temperatures has already caused the submergence of a few islands. This is something we should be particularly concerned about in the Annapolis Valley and especially in Wolfville as we are already close to or below sea level. What this means is that with the rise of our oceans Wolfville and other places like it will be slowly drowned. Sand bags and sea walls cannot prevent -only slightly delay- this inevitable.
Desertification may also happen sooner than we think. According to an article (Temperatures: warmest since Christ?) if our rainforests did dry up, "All the carbon in the trees and soil would add to that already in the atmosphere, sending global temperatures soaring by another two degrees." The effect would be similar on the ocean, "millions of tonnes of the potent greenhouse gas methane trapped under the deep oceans as 'methane hydrates', could suddenly be released as sea temperatures rise- dramatically worsening global warming."
"The world's average temperature increased by 0.6 degrees centigrade during the twentieth century and "the planet is now heating up by a fifth of a degree every decade." These statements help to give us a sense of urgency about stopping whatever it is that is happening, and to stop it right now. Even if we stopped contributing to climate change tomorrow and stopped all greenhouse gas emissions, the planet would continue heating for 100's of years. (www.megastories.com/warming)
This is only a small sampling of the alarming changes currently taking place in our planet. Reading even portions of such an article is enough to make anyone's head reel and many others turn away in discouragement. But what the information really tells us over and over again, and more and more forcefully, is "PAY ATTENTION!!" Because what is happening now, what we are doing now to pollute and exploit the earth, not only has an effect on our grandchildren and children -it has an effect on us! We don't have to wait for the oceans to rise another 7 metres, or for the Greenland ice sheet to disappear -if we look carefully enough we'll see that this is affecting our lives right now. As written in Storm events: has the weather gone mad?, "It could just be co-incidence, but the 1990's…saw unprecedented hurricane activity…between 1995 and 1998 there were 35 Atlantic hurricanes -an all-time record." And, "On 25 September 1998, for the first time in a hundred years of observations, there were four Atlantic hurricanes in progress at the same time." Such weather patterns affect us right now and will continue to in the future until we decide to take action on our own behalf.
North Americans actually do have a lot of power to make changes just by altering our consumption habits. "The responsibilities for carbon emissions lies overwhelmingly with the rich countries. They have only 20% of the world's population, but account for 80% of emissions. The United States, with a population of only 300 million, produces as much carbon dioxide as 135 developing countries with a combined population of 3 billion."
If you have been moved, inspired, or angered by any of this information there is a remarkable opportunity coming up locally to learn more about climate change and what you can do to help stop it, while having fun. As we know, the first step in changing anything is gaining awareness about the problem. We need to educate ourselves first of all.
~ Laura