News on Climate Change

Possibly the single greatest threat that humanity has ever faced in our millions of years of history is climate change, which is
defined as a change in the distribution of weather patterns that lasts for a significant period of time. Although many businesses, particularly those in the fossil fuel industry, argue against the existence of the massive change to our planet’s climate and are doing their best to deny it, the simple fact of the matter is that climate change is very real, and all the available evidence supports this conclusion. It’s not a coincidence that ninety-seven percent of climate scientists, those experts who have dedicated their lives and careers to the study and analysis of our planet’s climate, agree that an anthropocentric, or human-induced, climate shift is real and threatens humankind.

Natural Disasters

There are a few ways that the climate shift can and will affect us if we don’t take action immediately, and they’re very complex and rely a lot on the myriad relationships between different aspects of our planet’s systems and climate patterns. For example, for many years, climate change was known colloquially as “global warming,” which refers to the average temperature on the planet rising by a few degrees. This doesn’t seem like much, but the effect it has on our fragile climate stands to be disastrous. A rise in temperature of only a few degrees has caused the Arctic ice to melt and break away from the ice shelf, increasing the amount of cold water in the Atlantic Ocean. This massive difference in temperature affects the movement of water through the ocean, which affects wind patterns. The extreme cold weather experienced on the eastern coast of the United States over the past few years is directly attributable to this shift in ocean temperature. The change in the wind has dried out some sections of the world, leading to a massive spike in wildfires and forest fires, which in turn add more carbon to the atmosphere, thus fueling the cycle of climate shift even further.

Australian Bushfires

One example of these wild, untamed bushfires can be found in Australia’s southernmost state, Tasmania, which is seeing more bushfires now than at any point in the last thousand years. The southward migration of westerly winds is connected to the depletion of the ozone layer and the change in global temperatures. Though Tasmania is known for its lush vegetation and wet, faux Scottish climate—which is why Australians distil whiskey there—it owes its seasonal rains to westerly Antarctic winds. These bring dark, brooding storm clouds over Tasmania to moisten the island and the other southern parts of Australia. Without these winds to drench Tasmania every year, the tiny island has dried out, and dry winters, autumns, and springs have created optimum conditions for ravaging bushfires to take hold of the Tasmanian landscape. In fact, some Tasmanian climate scientists have warned that these Tasmanian fires are the first in a long, disastrous fire season across the rest of the Australian continent, particularly in the southern regions, which rely on Antarctic westerlies to bring the rain that prevents bushfires from getting out of control. Australia’s increasingly

hot summers and increasingly dry years threaten much of Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia, just as these conditions are threatening California and the rest of the United States’ west coast right now (source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-24/study-links-tassie-fires-to-human-induced-climate-change/7193830).

Rising Sea Levels

Something you might not be aware of is the rise in sea levels brought about by the addition of massive swathes of ice to the ocean. As this ice melts, it adds millions of gallons of water to the oceans and seas, raising sea levels by a few inches. This might not seem like much to people living on continents or far away from the beach, but for the residents of the Pacific Ocean, an additional few inches of seawater can be catastrophic. Many of the Pacific’s islands extend only a few inches from the ocean as it is, so a rise in sea levels means increased flooding and the destruction of homes, property, and livestock by the same sparkling, gently lapping waves most Westerners associate with resorts and beach vacations. Although Pacific islanders will be the first to bear the brunt of the rising ocean, eventually everyone living in coastal areas will experience the very same phenomenon. How exactly the world will handle the climate refugees fleeing rising tides is the subject of some rather intense academic debate at the moment, and many landlocked nations are developing contingency plans through which they will accommodate those displaced by the warming of our planet.

Good News

Fortunately, there is some good news pertaining to global warming in recent weeks. From 2001 to 2014, there was what has been labeled a “warming hiatus,” or a lull in the rate of global temperature rise, thanks in part to the climate policies enacted by governments worldwide over the past few decades. Recently, scientists discovered that this warming hiatus may in fact have the natural cycle of the Pacific Ocean to thank, with some fierce, fast-moving trade winds driving hot water into the depths of the ocean. Although this did force sea levels to rise, recent advances in climate science have enabled us to understand and harness the warming hiatus to help in the ongoing battle against global warming. It’s important to note that the long-term trend is still that the globe is warming steadily, and that the past two years have been the hottest on record.

Similarly, many global governments are now working together on climate policy that will address our planet’s need for quick, decisive action against global warming. For example, the United States government is forcing its companies, particularly those in the fossil fuel industry, to reduce their carbon emissions exponentially over the next couple of decades. Similarly, the United Nations and the European Union have worked on creating legislation that aims to reduce carbon emissions by member nations and their respective industries. Even investment patterns are starting to go the way of greenery, and numerous investors are pumping money into renewable energy and projects with the aim of reducing humanity’s carbon footprint.