We’ve Seen Climate Change Coming. We Need to Act Now.

In 1896 Swedish Scientist, Svante Arrhenius, predicted carbon dioxide emissions from human activity would increase global temperatures via the green house effect. He thought it would take 3000 years to double the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere resulting in an average global temperature increase of 5 to 6 degrees Celsius.  (Too bad it will take less than 150 years instead of 3,000.)

In 1958, Charles David Keeling began meticulous recoding of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.  His work, now continued by others, is the longest continuous record of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the world and shows carbon dioxide increasing in relation to human activity.  In 1963, the National Science Foundation issued a warning regarding the green house effect and cited Keeling’s research. 

With initial warnings sounded over 100 years ago, global warming is far from a new idea, and in 2012 it doesn’t take scientific genius to see first hand what Arrhenius and Keeling had predicted.  In spite of the advanced warning, human-kind is paralyzed in the face of climate change.  We’re in a climate train wreck of our own making, and we’re still shoveling coal on the fire, but we should be applying the breaks on green house gases. 

Compared to the coming climate crisis, the financial and economic crisis that started in 2008 will look like a pic nic.  The climate crisis and related extreme weather will deliver direct impacts to food supply, water supply, land and territory, loss of life and property.  In addition to the suffering from those direct impacts, it’s safe to say that economies dealing with all those problems won’t be providing more for future generations.

The climate train wreck is inevitable, and some would say we’re already seeing extreme weather that is the result of climate change.  In spite of the natural processes that remove it from the atmosphere, carbon dioxide emitted today will have an effect on the climate for a hundred or more years.  The increasing global temperatures are thawing perma-frost which in turn releases more green house gas.  Ice and snow melt already brought on by green house effect means heat from the sun is absorbed more, rather than reflected (i.e., the albedo effect). The world population is on track to grow from 7 billion until it tops out at 10 billion while per capita carbon emissions are increasing.

Although huge impacts of climate change are unavoidable, we still have the chance to make it worse or reduce the impact.  The old sayings about a “stitch in time” and “he who hesitates” hold true in this case: the longer we wait to act, the faster we’ll be accelerating into the carbon hole of climate change.  In the United States, we need action on all levels in order to get to the general goal of reducing per capita carbon emissions to 1/7 of current (that’s right, reduce by 7/8).  Here’s what to do:

·      Individual conservation.  Reduce your carbon footprint by conserving electricity, heat, and fuel.  Most people know what to do, but it’s a matter of actually doing *all* of it

·      Use greener energy.  Get the certified green alternative from your electricity provider.  Make your next car (if you need to have one) electric.

·      Become a social change agent.  Help your friends, family, and community be aware of climate change, and help them know what they can do.

·      Community activism.  Join and participate in an organization such as 350.org or betterfuture.org.

·      Political action.  Know the voting records of your government representatives (e.g., www.treehugger.com), let them know how you feel, and vote to put the people in office who will take action to slow climate change.