To the Editor:
One of the very few benefits of getting older is that you are sometimes able to see how long-running public debates play out. Take, for example, the debate about climate change.
I remember when most people said that it really wasn’t happening — that it was just weather.
That attitude has changed now as we see that our planet has experienced 15 of the 16 warmest years on record over the previous 20 years along with Arctic ice melting rapidly and glaciers retreating all over the world. An argument was then put forward claiming that more carbon dioxide and warming are good for us because plants will grow better.
That argument has given way to the harm we are seeing from increased droughts and wildfires, sea water flooding on nice days, coral reef die-off, and strengthening hurricanes. Some of my friends would tell me that we can’t do anything about the warming climate because it is caused by fluctuations in the output of the sun. That argument lasted until NASA, starting in 1978, was able to send satellites into space to accurately measure solar output and temperatures in the layers of the atmosphere.
That data now shows that there has been no upward trend in solar output even as global temperatures have risen. Now the current argument is that we can’t do anything about it because it is just the natural cycle of warming and cooling and we are merely heading towards a warming period. This argument resonates with many people because we all have heard of the ice age and have seen charts which show up and down temperature cycles over millions of years. The trouble with this is that earth scientists point out that these cycles operate over thousands of years, whereas temperature changes over the last 100 years are occurring eight to ten times faster than what you would expect from normal interglacial cycles. Meanwhile, consistently, the vast, vast majority of climate scientists — 97percent according to NASA’s count — are saying that the amount of greenhouse gases that our industrialized society is pumping into the atmosphere is causing the climate to change at a rapid rate. Significant warming is predicted to take place not over thousands of years, but within 80 years. Scant time for our world to adjust! I wish I had 80 years left in order to see how this continues to play out but that is not going to happen. One thing I can predict is that there will always be an argument for people who really don’t want to do anything. For those who think this is a problem that needs to be solved and believe that we can be part of the solution, there are organizations such as the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (citizensclimatelobby.org) here in The Villages that can use your help.
Jay Jacobson
Village of Pine Ridge