Visitor warns of even greater disaster
I’ve been following your earthquake and tsunami coverage while enduring unseasonable, blistering hot weather during my past timeshare week at Stoneridge Resort in Blanchard. I commend you for helping the public understand the disruptive impact that unpredictable natural forces can have on our communities and economies.
After you have recovered from this traumatic event may I suggest a similar series of articles on an even greater threat to our economy, our ecosystems and our quality of life, a threat that, like earthquakes, cannot be predicted with precision, but which is very real. That threat is climate chaos aggravated by continued levels of greenhouse gas emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels and unsustainable land management practices.
It is a fact that atmospheric levels of this form of pollution have increased about 40 percent over my lifetime. Unfortunately atmospheric concentrations are on track to soon double if the exponential rate of increase in global emissions is not significantly reduced. When my grandparents were born levels were about 320 ppmv — a relatively steady level that has existed throughout the rise of human civilization. Atmospheric levels of greenhouse gas pollution have recently exceeded 400 ppmv. Scientists predict levels as high as 600 ppmv within the lifetime of my grandchildren.
Your readers may not understand the complexities of the scientific debate over efforts to accurately and precisely project how climate chaos will impact various regions of the planet, but they are more than capable of understanding that adding more heat energy to a closed system, imagine a pot of water on a stove, will cause the water to eventually boil. The Earth’s atmosphere-ocean system is no different than a pot of water on the stove or a steam boiler; add heat energy and the water heats up and eventually boils and becomes unstable. Your readers are capable of recognizing that extreme weather events created by greenhouse gas warming, such as more prolonged periods of heavy rain and extreme drought, will have a direct impact on their lives that can be much more severe than a coastal earthquake and tsunami event hundreds of miles away.
Our political challenge is that emission reductions must be worldwide. The United States MUST lead by example if there is to be any hope of achieving global emission reductions over the next 50 years to levels that will prevent a phenomenon that scientists call a runaway greenhouse effect. Like an earthquake, science tells us that if greenhouse gas pollution is not reduced, the question is not IF the runaway greenhouse effect will happen, but WHEN. Unlike earthquakes, however, human civilization has an opportunity to take action that will mitigate, if not prevent, the increase in global greenhouse gas pollution.
Again, the United States MUST Lead By Example; that includes Idaho and Florida, states represented by politicians who listen to pollsters rather than physicists and who thus think that the greenhouse effect is a hoax. The Hagadone News Network has an opportunity to help your readers better understand the facts and the science that should be used to inform elected leaders.
The rain today (Friday) ended a prolonged period of high temperatures and underscores the importance of the public understanding that greenhouse gas pollution is real and that the impacts projected by scientists are much more reliable and credible than opinions derived from focus groups and push polls. Unfortunately, most of the news and editorial coverage in the mass media seems to be created by political scientists rather than real scientists; i.e. physicists, oceanographers, chemists and biologists.
End of lecture. Keep up the good work.
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David E. Bruderly, a professional engineer, resides in Jacksonville, Fla.