The most common argument that folks use against the case for Global Climate Change is that we have only been keeping records about weather and climate for a hundred and fifty years or so. This is only partially true. Ancient literature and artwork may not have been done by meteorologists, but they did depict or detail conditions as far back as recorded history. 17th century prints clearly show the extent of glaciers in Europe, agricultural records from Egypt and Mesopotamia detail both floods and drought. People have always known that the environment directly effects our quality of life and noted the extremes and conditions that were either bucolic or harsh. Since the development of the thermometer we have been able to put numbers to paper that represent conditions, but saying that high blood pressure didn't exist until we had blood pressure cuffs would be an obvious misrepresentation of fact.
The ignorance that fuels the "anti global-warming" crowd would be quaint if it did not jeopardize our children's future quality of life. As we see records fall, in ever more rapid succession and in larger and larger areas, it should give pause and call us to question why. When I studied meteorology as a child, and again in college, prevailing wisdom said that relatively high and low pressure cells alternated with one another. The size of these cells rarely measured more than a few hundred miles across, and the affect of "steering" winds of the jet stream on ground level conditions usually changed on a seasonal frequency. The atmosphere was relatively stable compared to what we see today.
Another myth that the anti-climate change folks cling to is the belief that, "The atmosphere is so vast that human activity couldn't possibly affect it." The weather producing atmosphere, depending on how you measure it is roughly five miles thick. To give a sense of scale, shrink the earth down to the size of an apple. At this scale, the atmosphere would be about as thick as the skin. We can document the "Brown Cloud" that wafts off China. We can see the perma-smog over more and more urban areas. We can document human health effects from fly ash piles that result from burning coal. To say that we couldn't possibly cause change in the atmosphere again flies in the face of fact. Climate destabilization seems to be the rule rather than a series of isolated events.
Dependent as we are on conditions in far away places like Florida and California, it is time that we begin to see the climate as a unifying force in understanding of and commitment to addressing this issue. Rather than just hearing on the news that orange juice or strawberries will be more expensive at the grocery stores, or that vegetables will be more expensive next year, we need to understand our part in throwing climate out of whack. It can be hard to fathom, but imagine giant columns of air rising over the landscape. Heated air, full of particulates and hazardous substances tend to rise. I live along a fifty-mile stretch of urban development. The invisible ridge that develops along the Fox River Valley can often be "seen" on radar, like a mountain range forcing the air up and over the ridge results in higher precipitation and warmer conditions as we continue to burn fuel close to the ground.
In the Winter, we have an added problem when the warm air, full of it's hazardous chemicals tries to dissipate, but encounters very cold dense air in the area. We can plainly see our emissions build up under the "ceiling". worse yet, in winter we often get alternating winds from the Southwest during the daytime hours and from the Northeast at night. As the air moves back and forth over the urban area, the same bolus of air gets filled with more and more particulates and hazardous compounds. When you think of Green Bay, Wisconsin most folks don't think of smog. Each time I get a chance to get out of town, as I come back into the urban area, I see the smog and wonder why I have to be subjected to hazardous air daily. Most urban areas are near river mouths or in river valleys because they were accessible by water when that was the primary transportation method. It was a plus that those locations were somewhat protected from major storms, but the same morphology that protected us in the pre-industrial era acts to hold in the toxins that we spew today.
I come down on the side of independent thought, looking at facts and making up my own mind on these issues. The commitment that I have made to living a conservative lifestyle is based on the research that I have done, not the catch phrases of any organization or movement. Back in the day, someone coined the idea of "thinking globally but acting locally". It is my firm belief that this is an impossible task, designed to inspire inaction rather than change. I like the opposite concept. Think and act locally. When we look closely enough at our local environment, we can see the heavy hand of man and the destructive capacity of ignorant actions. When we walk more, talk to our neighbors more and plant more of the food that sustains us in our own yards, we can live better for less, saving money and impacting the environment far less than if we rely on others to provide our every need. When we discover the art of pre-cycling, (choosing to purchase products that can be repaired, reused or recycled rather than ones that need to be discarded after a single use.) understand the joys of walking and riding bike, learn to cultivate the soil rather than hate the dirt we walk on, and learn to live in harmony with the planet rather than fearing it, we can make positive changes on scales that are unimaginable. While thinking globally might sound nice in a sound bite, it has stifled change rather than facilitating it. Future generations will depend on having clean air, water and healthy food and soil. The way most of us are living our lives has degraded the quality of all of these resources. That is why I prefer to call "resources" gifts of Creator. We have been given Eden, but we have transformed it into the world that we see reported on the news nightly. The good news is that infinitesimally small changes implemented by the billions of earth's residents have the power to create miraculous changes virtually overnight.
If we made just one resolution for the coming year, to live as if the Earth mattered, considering the next seven generations as the Native Americans called it, the change that would flow from that one change would reverse the trends toward global catastrophe. Gaia has the power to heal herself, we just need to decide whether our species will help to recreate Eden and be around to enjoy it once it has been reestablished, or whether we will fall into the group of organisms who will never exist on the planet again. Extinction is truly forever. When we begin to live as if the Earth matters, it unleashes abundance unimaginable to those who remain under the bondage of "survival of the fittest" thinking. When I realized that survival of the luckiest is the actual fact, it allowed me to rethink many of the other lies that have been perpetrated in defense of the Power and Control model. The good old boys are on the ropes, what is needed is for us to stop beating a dead horse. Walk away from the fight, and put our energies into creating the New world Order that allows competitive and short sighted power mongers no quarter. Their "reality" is flawed and we can find myriad examples of cooperative systems that affirm life rather than tearing it down. Like Ghandi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world."
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