So you read a report about glaciers melting; what are you supposed to think about that? Join the throng, join the chorus clamoring for climate controls?
Just a second.
Bare in mind that our planet is constantly changing. There are electrical discharges (lightning) happening around the clock, plenty of earthquakes (yes, every day), volcanoes erupting, storms and droughts. Once the atmosphere was composed largely of helium, then CO2, and now oxygen, which was once a poisonous by-product of carbon dioxide breathing organsims. In fact, oxygen is still mighty corrosive, it's oxygen that eats apple cores and corrodes metal.
We've had plenty of warming events in time, and ice ages. The ice marches every 20 000 years, and we're due now. And how it works is the Earth warms up first, puts a lot of water in the atmosphere and into the oceans, and this causes a sort of greenhouse effect (allied with CO2), and then it comes down as snow and rain and then the planet gets cold.
Warming apparently has started since 1850. So it's a natural phenomenon, and man is also helping it along.
The fact that it's a 'natural phenomenon' doesn't make me sleep easier. Yes, global mechanisms are powerful, but the impact of man on this planet is no longer negligible, and we need to take responsibility for our numerous trips in the car. I don't feel this is happening in a sincere way, or in a broad enough pattern.
Like everyone else, I am in the dark, and what will come, will come. I do believe we need to remain vigilant, picking up the symptoms of a cold before they are completely manifest. One of these symptoms, I feel, are the stormy patterns in the Gulf. Another, is simply the weather in your region. Any records, any surprises?
If there are, do let me know.
Let's keep a tab.
Please click on the title of this post to go to a news article covering this topic in more detail.
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