Global Warming on Cats Paws

Weather, one of the most common and safest public topics the world over - unless you are talking about global warming. The Republicans pol-speak for it is "climate change," and years of official denial and corporate-paid scientists have left some people thinking that it is a matter of opinion. Like whether you like rainy days or sunny days is a matter of personal taste. Well, guess what? It's not a matter of opinion. According to a new report the Arctic is heating up at 2 to 3 times the global average, and " Some parts of Alaska have heated up 10 times more than the global average" (Reuters, 5/24/04). In David Stipps February 2004 Fortune article (Climate Collapse), he states:

At first the changes are easily mistaken for normal weather variation - allowing skeptics to dismiss them as a "blip" of little importance and leaving policymakers and the public paralyzed with uncertainty.

Well take a look outside.

Tornadoes and flooding in the midwest of the US (o'Driscoll, USA Today, 5/25/04) are a case in point. Areas are flooding that have never flooded before. Tornadoes are everywhere - some small, but many large. The West and Southwest of the US is bracing for a record fire season as snow pack evaporates and everything dries out much ahead of normal.

Hispanola - the home island of Haiti and the Dominican Republic - are a shambles from rain, flood, and mud slides. It is estimated that over 2,000 people are dead (Brodzinsky, Guardian, 5/27/04). Entire villages are buried under mud flows. And Haiti, still struggling with the (US backed) overthrow of its legitimate government, and an economic crisis of epidemic proportions, struggles to respond.

In the far north, Inuits are starving. The ice that has been there since times of legend is opening up - stranding hunters and polar bears. This change will certainly drive the polar bears (and other species) into extinction within 20 years, and the Inuit culture with them.

It seems increasingly likely that the massive melt of the Arctic will trigger the beginning of an ice age. No one can predict how big, but at the rate of Arctic warming the Earth is nearing a "tipping point." The oceans are rising, and the climate will get more erratic - and violent. Coastal cities (where most of population and commerce live) could be wiped out.

There may still be time to mitigate the depth of the coming change. Certainly there is time to mitigate some of the chaos, death, and societal destruction but it means acting now. Weather blips? Be not deceived.

5/25/04 O'Driscoll, USA Today, Central states brace for more tornadoes

5/27/04 Brodzinsky, Guardian/UK, Island flood toll soars to 2,000

5/24/04 Doyle, Reuters, Fast Arctic Thaw Portends Global Warming

5/04/04 Wolf, Uncommon Thought Journal, Environmental collapse - sooner not later

Posted by rowan at May 27, 2004 7:45 AM | TrackBack | [eMail this article!] |