MC naturalist: Climate change real

There is much discussion these days about global warming. That is as it should be, but it is unfortunate that the issue of climate change and its effects on the planet and our lives (and especially the lives of our children and grandchildren) is so often used as an emotional political wedge to divide us. This is a complicated issue, and the facts are often lost, muddied and even ignored, as self-interested politicians and partisan talk show hosts fan the flames to generate votes and boost ratings.

This is, quite simply, not a partisan issue. For the past decades, respected science and military organizations have provided carefully researched data and analysis that show evidence for unprecedented global warming and directly correlate some human activities with this change.

The National Academy of Sciences, cited by the Bush Administration as “the gold standard of objective scientific assessment,” (governed by its approximately 2,000 members, of whom more than 200 have won Nobel Prizes), has reported that greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth’s atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise (http://nationalacademies.org/onpi/06072005.pdf).

Since 2006, the Military Advisory Board of the Center for Naval Analysis (a panel of 11 retired three- and four-star flag and general officers from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps) has been issuing reports assessing the effect of climate change on national security. Their 2007 report, National Security and the Threat of Climate Change, “articulates the concept of climate change acting as a ‘threat multiplier’ for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world.” (http://www.cna.org/nationalsecurity/climate/)

Clearly, the basic science informing us that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases cause global temperatures to rise is undisputed in the scientific community.

Short-term temperature declines cited as evidence against global warming are totally misleading, as the climate change we are concerned with is the general global trend over many, many years, and the weather during short, discreet periods or for smaller regions are not at issue. While there are certainly natural fluctuations in temperature over time, the top graph (in the Jan. 14 Madison Eagle) shows a very clear upward trend.

The dispute now is not whether temperatures have been rising, but whether these changes have been caused by human activity. The bottom graph (in the Jan. 14 Madison Eagle) showing greenhouse gas emissions since the Industrial Revolution, illuminates the discussion.

Several hundred years ago during the Industrial Revolution, humans began using machinery, powered by coal and oil (fossil fuels), to do work. When these fossil fuels are burned, they give off carbon dioxide and other gases, known as “greenhouse gases” because they trap heat in our atmosphere just as the glass panels of a greenhouse trap the sun’s heat inside the structure.

As our use of fossil fuels has increased, the levels of greenhouse gases have risen. And, all of that trapped heat has caused global temperatures to rise. At our current rate of adding contaminants to the atmosphere, over the next decades we will likely see sea levels rise, usable cropland diminish, the extinction of some animal species, and the rise of others, such as warm-weather disease-carrying insects. These are just a few of the many, many potential effects of accelerated global heating.

The real question we must ask ourselves, whatever our political orientation, whatever our view on the climate change issue, is: Why pollute so much in the first place? How can we be more reasonable in our use of limited natural resources? Can we turn our thermostats down a few notches and put on a sweater, rather than walk around the house in shorts and T-shirts in January? Can we turn a few lights off in empty rooms? Can we buy more food grown or raised locally than from sources thousands of miles away?

There are many very small changes we can make to change the current trend. Many of us think that we can have no impact on such a huge issue, but there 6.7 billion of us on this earth, 304 million of us in the U.S., and 12, 500 of us in Madison County. Many small changes add up to significant change.
Not “believing” in climate change does not give us the right to consume resources with impunity. I’m sure we all agree that this planet we call home deserves to be treated with respect. Whatever you may believe about climate change, I urge you to do all you can to preserve the system that keeps us alive.

(Guest columnist Dana Squire owns a custom framing studio in Madison and is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist. Contact her via e-mail at danasquire@earthlink.net.)