Tipping-Point Coming Soon as Climate Change Moves Faster than Scientists Expect

The above capped article comes from WashingtonPost.com (here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/14/AR2009021401757_pf.html
) and was posted back on February 15, 2009. However, I felt is was
important enough to blog about it to make sure people were aware.

See, in typical human fashion, it seems like scientists haven't been thinking deeply enough about how Climate Change is occurring. Up until recently, scientists have been fixating on what they say are the causes of Climate Change (ie carbon emissions from fossil fuels causing the greenhouse effect, warming up our planet and screwing up weather and climate patterns). The thing is, they didn't think about what the effects of the effects are.

In this WaPo article they begin to talk about this. Here's an excerpt:

Unexpectedly large amounts of carbon dioxide are being
released into the atmosphere as the result of "feedback loops" that
are speeding up natural processes. Prominent among these, evidence
indicates, is a cycle in which higher temperatures are beginning to
melt the arctic permafrost, which could release hundreds of billions
of tons of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, said
several scientists on a panel at the meeting.

The permafrost holds 1 trillion tons of carbon, and as much as 10 percent of that could be released this century, Field said. Along with carbon dioxide melting permafrost releases methane, which is 25 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

"It's a vicious cycle of feedback where warming causes the release of carbon from permafrost, which causes more warming, which causes more release from permafrost," Field said.

The Field quoted at the end of that excerpt was Christopher Field, founding director of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University.

If you want to learn more about this, you can check out the rest of that article. You can also check out a cartoon I posted on thepete.com back on January 13, 2009 that explains the whole Climate Change tipping-point thing in a fairly simple, straightforward way.

Of course, unlike religion, there are no absolutes here--these scientists could have it wrong. They're only human, after all. Still, there's a lot of science that supports all of this (not to mention basic logic). The thing that worries me, though, is that there are still a lot of people who fixate on the "man made" part of Climate Change. They think that we humans don't bear any responsibility for causing the changes that are occurring on our only planet. To these people I say this:

Who cares?

The fact of the matter is that glaciers ARE melting. Our climate IS changing.

And guess what: getting off of fossil fuels, limiting pollution and waste is GOOD for us. Not only does it help the environment (the medium in which we LIVE and BREATHE in) but it also helps the planet politically. Sure, it may harm economic interests, but which is more important to you? Your money or your life?

Plus, with this whole new "tipping-point" thing, we need to start thinking about how we're going to deal with these changes, not with how to stop them--that's the real issue here. I don't give a crap which side of the political fence you sit on. It doesn't matter if cars did it or factories, or if it's the sun--the climate is changing and it just may get really messed up fast. Now, that little cartoon seemed to think we can still stop this doomsday-ish scenario from happening, but I think we really need to be prepared to fail.

Come on, it's not like we humans have been doing so well, lately.

You want to trust the government to get it right when they screwed up Iraq, Afghanistan and New Orleans so royal?

Or should we trust the free market to not hike up the price of water-wings when our coastal cities begin to flood?

My solution? I think I'm going to go check out Craigslist.org NYC section to look at boats for sale. I've always wanted to live on a boat! :\

Posted via email from thepete's posterous

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