Significant system and lifestyle changes are the only solutions for severe climate change affecting our planet, Sue Michalson told members of the Villages Civil Discourse Club meeting Monday at the Savannah Center.
“Once the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet begins, it will be impossible to stop,” said Michalson, a political activist and founder of the Villages Environmental Club. “How long will it take before most of our coastal cities and towns will be under water?”
Michalson’s talk will be repeated at 10 a.m., next Monday at Colony Cottage Recreation Center.
She said the only hope of reducing the effects of climate change are immediate shifts in the way corporations, government and individuals operate.
“There’s no question that we are having a climate crisis,” she said. “Its effects are widespread and dangerous.”
She said average temperatures are expected to rise by up to seven degrees by the end of the century and ocean levels also are increasing. Those changes could lead to the extinction of many of the earth’s animal species.
Michalson said reducing pollution and the use of fossil fuels could help and suggested that those concerned about the problem join a protest planned by several environmental groups for Sept. 21 in New York City.
But not everyone at the meeting was persuaded that the threat of climate change is as dire as Michalson described.
During the discussion period, Donn Dears, a retired scientist and engineer, said scientific analysis has determined that temperatures a thousand years ago and earlier during the Roman Empire were higher than those today.
He said average global temperatures haven’t increased over the past 15 years at a time when more carbon dioxide has been released into the atmosphere.
“It’s not carbon dioxide or methane that are causing the problem,” he said.
Remi Wrona, who teaches a geopolitics course at the Villages Lifelong Learning College, said Michalson cannot expect such drastic changes.
“Your position is all or nothing and things don’t happen that way,” he said. “It’s not all or nothing. There are things we can do to address these problems.”
Jack Brush, a retired professor from the University of Zurich (Switzerland), said it’s too late to continue debating climate change.
“I think discussing whether or not there is climate change at this point is foolish,” he said. “We can discuss that until we are extinct.”