climatechangeforourfuture.com

Does Climate Change mean catastrophe or does it just mean that we will all be one degree warmer? The heat generated by the controversy may not add to global Warming but neither does it shed any light on the real issues.

 Ever since The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century, people have been burning fossil fuels and pouring large amounts of  smoke into the atmosphere. We all know that this produced smog and then acid rain. We did not realise that the smokestacks were pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Or that it mattered.

The real issue is that now our industries are so powerful that we have to massively reduce the dumping of smoke and Carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.  If we continue to dump and pump Carbon dioxide into the atmosphere the Warming that is happening now will take off like a rocket.

The Glaciers are Melting and the Clock is Ticking

Anyone familiar with high mountain regions will tell you that glaciers are retreating. You may not see much difference year on year but the retreat of glaciers up the valleys back into the high mountain areas can be seen easily over the decades. 

Glaciers provide water to some of the greatest rivers of the world. If the Glaciers are melting then the long term future for milions of people living in places supplied by for example, The Ganges, is grim.

An even nastier side of this is that as Glaciers melt the ground underneath them is revealed. Glaciers are very bright and they reflect most light hitting them. But the newly exposed ground  is a lot darker and absorbs more heat.

More heat leads to more global warming-which melts more glaciers.

The Storms are Coming  

As the Earth warms more water vapour enters the atmosphere and more warmth. Warm moist air acts like rocket fuel in a hurricane. So global warming means more and bigger hurricanes. Coastal communities will bear the brunt of this but bigger hurricanes like Katrina can venture further inland. they are "City Destroyers" even if normal flood defences are in place.

The Temperature is Rising-the Patient Has a Fever

The "patient" is our poor planet. Our crazy behaviour over the last 200 years has got  the Earth into a fever. Will she "pull through?"

Who can say?

Metaphors aside, there are health implications of global warming.

Higher temperatures allow mosquitos and beetles to extend their range and their ability to transmit disease to larger areas. More tropical illnesses will be seen and seen more often.