Global warming is a fact
Do you believe in anthropogenic global warming?
People ask this a lot, but it’s the wrong question. It’s not about belief, but a matter of science. If I asked whether you believe in gravity, you’d say that was a dumb question because it’s obviously a fact. Jumping off the top of a tall building would confirm this.
The correct question is: Are you convinced by the scientific evidence that global warming is a fact?
Thousands of scientists around the world conduct research on global warming and the scientific literature on the subject is enormous. As a professor, I taught a course on climate change for many years at a large research university and I have read a fair amount of this literature. The evidence is absolutely convincing that anthropogenic global warming is a fact. Surveys of climate scientists globally show that 97 percent of them are convinced by the evidence. The earth’s atmosphere has been warming for 100 years, and at an accelerating rate because we burn more and more fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and gas. The upward trend is way beyond what you would expect from natural causes.
The latest evidence was presented by scientists in a paper published June 28 in the journal Nature, probably the most prestigious scientific journal in the world. Treating the earth’s atmosphere as a container of many gases, which it clearly is, they calculated how many years it would take for this container to become so full of carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases we emit into the atmosphere that it would be impossible to stop global warming.
The answer is 15 years from now. If we want to avoid a global catastrophe, we’d have to abruptly and completely stop burning fossil fuels globally in 2032. Obviously, that’s not going to happen. An alternative, say these scientists, is to start phasing out fossil fuels now and continue doing so for the next 25 years until we reach zero emissions. I’m doubtful this will happen either, because every country has to commit to this goal. The United States, one of the biggest emitters, is at best lukewarm to this plan due to its financial and geopolitical interests around the world, and the widespread apathy and denial of so many of its citizens and politicians about this impending catastrophe.
I suggest you tell your children and grandchildren to be prepared for an environmentally hostile and thoroughly degraded life in the second half of this century. Are you to blame?
Robert Hanham
Carmichaels