Why We Shouldn’t Ignore Global Warming

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Written by: Tiobe

 

It is trite, perhaps, but true: when it comes to Earth, there is no “away,” no Planet B to escape to, as yet. It is but one of the many facts that makes climate change depressing to those paying attention; if humans damage this planet irreparably (for our use, at any rate), there is no known feasible alternative.

Make no mistake, the science regarding climate change is in: according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a whopping 97 percent of climate scientists agree the planet is warming, most likely due to human activities. A GIF of compiled NASA images showing temperature anomalies from the 1880s to the current decade provides clear visual evidence that fluctuations in Earth’s temperature have decidedly spiked, most notably from the 1930s on.

According to NASA, the global sea level rose about 6.7 inches in the last century, likely from sea ice melted from those rising temperatures created by an increase in carbon emissions, an effect known as the Greenhouse Gas Effect. In recent years, this has had a palpable effect on coastal and island communities; ask residents of New Orleans, Louisiana or of Haiti, or the Philippines if they believe climate change is real. Thanks to Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ike and Tropical Storm Ketsana, residents of these locales have more firsthand experience with the effects of climate change than any of us would wish.

According to media center Deepcor, the following cities are likely to become submerged in the near future, if trends continue: Guanzhou, China; Mumbai, India; Kolkata, India; Guataquil, Ecuador; Shenzen, China; Miami, Florida; Tianjin, China; New York City, New York and Newark, New Jersey; Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam; New Orleans, Louisiana; Jakarta, Indonesia; Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Chennai, India; Surat, India; Zhanjiang, China; Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida; Boston, Massachusetts; Bangkok, Thailand; Xiamen, China and Nagoya, Japan.

When you look at it like that, we are truly all in this together.

“Human activities are changing Earth’s climate. At the global level, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases       have increased sharply since the Industrial Revolution. Fossil     fuel burning dominated this increase. Human-caused increases in greenhouse gases are responsible for most of the observed global average surface warming of roughly  1.5°F over the past 140 years. Because natural processes cannot quickly remove        some of these gases (notably carbon dioxide) from the atmosphere, our past,     present and future emissions will influence the climate system for millennia,” states the American Geophysical Union.

Satellite imagery from NASA collected from 2000 to 2014 shows the Aral Sea has all but disappeared, as has rainforest in Brazil.

“Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems,” states the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its fourth assessment report. In fact, it uses the word “irreversible” a grand total of 14 times in that report.

The plain and simple fact is that once sea ice is melted, there is no way to remove it from the oceans and re-freeze it; some damage has been done that cannot be undone.

The good news is our species can be damnable clever and adaptive.

Feldheim, Germany recently became the World’s first energy self-sufficient community, utilizing a combination of solar, wind and biomass facilities for its power sources.

El Hierro in the Spanish Canary Islands claims to have beaten Germany to the punch, using wind and water power plants. The tiny island-nation invested $110 million in Gorona del Viento power plant, which produces up to 48 gigawatt-hours per year to feed the country’s needs.

And then there is the bioreactor algae farm in Geneva, Switzerland above a highway that generates Oxygen and energy whilst consuming carbon dioxide emissions from the vehicles below it.

These are just a small sampling of the many, many innovations humankind has devised in recent years in reaction to the new world we are living in, and which underscore our capacity for adaptation.

Because our consumption of fossil fuels is undoubtedly warming our planet and creating a situation that may be difficult for our species – and others – to survive, but time will tell if we apply our minds and energy to evolving in-step with these changes.

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Sources:

http://deepcor.com/news/1267/global-warming-is-a-global-issue

http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2014/nov/10/we-must-manage-global-warming-risks-by-cutting-carbon-pollution-ipcc

http://sciencepolicy.agu.org/files/2013/07/AGU-Climate-Change-Position-Statement_August-2013.pdf

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/science/green/141006/time-lapse-gifs-nasa-environment-impact-climate-change-deforestation-mountaintop-mining

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-10/german-village-first-to-become-energy-self-sufficient/5879360

http://n.pr/Ywji3s

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/urban-algae-farm-gobbles-highway-air-pollution

 

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7 COMMENTS

      • You do understand that the earth goes through natural warming & cooling cycles, don’t you? Did you pay attention in first grade science class? It’s obvious you didn’t pay attention in vocabulary because you have no “SENSE” about you

  1. Yes … If only there was “JUST” global warming. I’m so ashamed to be part of humanity, firmly chained down by money system down on my knees hands full of work, watching huge machinery runde by psychos in suits down the cliff… and guess to what I am chained to ? … Yes I’m gonna be dragged down with it. So Im trying to atleast make the chain longer…

  2. Also don’t forget the Industrial Revolution where everything was coated in smog, and coal. The other thing is that the NWO wants us to pay carbon tax for the 1% to get rich. Not to mention while the middle class, and the poor are slaving away the rich are using HAARP to keep us in slavery.

    So it’s not our fault but the rich wanting to get richer, and stay in control.

  3. The conceptos that the warming is global is trite. the warming is oceanic in nature. the fact that it is oceanic in truth is the clouds, the vapour that stems from the oceans is accumulating and falling faster each year. rainfall is increasing and due to the “washing out” of the air of dust particles causing lack of rain over continents. source of this heat is the earth capturing of the suns increase in magnetic output. as the earth spins in it the energy is absorbed and heat the core, and the mantle, where the oceans are closest to that mantel they heat up first. if G. Hapsgood were still alive he’d be screaming to look out for the next phase, contenental vulcanism. which is also the last phase because of gravity and flow potentials the earths crust will begin shifting and deforming soon after that phase begins. of great interest to real estate brokers the last shift resulted in the canadian expanse, a increase in the earth surface and the slowing of the planets rotation. all science here…

  4. Awhile ago I had an idea. Almost 10 years ago. Whether this information is true or false we do have to change the current system. I started to plan and design my idea which only expels oxygen. I never had my plans on a device other then pencil and paper. When I finished the planning stage I needed investors and help building it as I was only 18 at the time. Sent a few emails and talked to some locals about it. Half of them said it’s crazy and impossible to do. Then weird phone calls and text messages saying to stop what I was doing. But fuck it. I want to be able to breathe. My idea has no combustion. Uses minimal amounts of oil. And never needs to stop for re fueling. Can you guess it?

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