Climate Change The Issue of Our Times
Stimulated by a comment by Flickr
friend Dave Linscheid
Sorry to read of your heat intolerance, but I
wonder how many people can thrive outside in the kind of heat you endure (a
humid 95 degree day in Austin)? I certainly could not. (Dave lives in southern
Minnesota.)
Dave, you are right "not
many". Climate change research went
into high gear after Katrina, and those studies (hundreds at the worlds top
scientific universities, half in the US) are now pouring into the journals for
peer review before publication. Typical
of scientific revolutions, most of our accepted ideas of the 20th century turn
out to be false, and in some cases dangerously misleading. Surprisingly, these rigorous studies from all
around the globe AGREE on most major conclusions. The biggest surprise is that major climate
changes can and often do happen fast, often in a mere decade, contrary to prior
conventional belief that several thousand years was the norm. Our species adaptation, while often extremely
clever, is slow on a cultural level, and many entire societies have perished
because they were not able to change fast enough. Our species is unchanged
biologically over long periods of rapid climactic change, and our ancestors
were just as smart as we are. Therefore
any "modern arrogance" will actually impair our ability to adapt to
these changes, since false superiority leads to complacency. Everyone should be addressing this issue,
which rarely even makes the front page.
There is only one issue that threatens our survival as a species: climate
change.
To quote William C. Calvin, a
neurologist and frontrunner in this arena since it began: "One of the most shocking scientific
realizations of all time has slowly been dawning on us: the earth's climate
does flip-flops every few thousand years, and with breathtaking
speed." "A Brain for All
Seasons" , 2002. It is a delight to
read as his writing style is fresh and continues to surprise. Some solid knowledge of general knowledge is
helpful, but this book was written to inform the general public.
Here are a few of the conclusions
by world wide scientific research groups, all done after his book was written.
1) extreme heat is the new
norm
2) summer heat waves will
increase
3) very recent studies
indicate that the American Southwest will have long periods of extreme drought lasting 100-200
years. this has been vaidated be
scientists in other fields, archeology, and anthropology who have verified that
a Native American tribe named the Ashkenazi, perished during the last mega
drought from 600 to 800 AD, which occur with an almost perfect sine wave
frequency of 1000 years. The last period
of super drought, survived by the Hopi and Navajo, who apparently knew
something about water that the Ashkenazi didn't, was 1400 years ago. Statistically, that means that we are now
almost certainly at the beginning of a 100-200 year drought, the likes of which
are unknown to not only the living Europeans or their ancestors. Even primitive record keeping, only began
around 1000 AD. But the climate models
which have proven to be startling accurate include the Middle Ages.
4) for those living today and
their ancestors for several generations should consider that we are now in a
"permanent drought" for all practical purposes.
This summary only hits the
highlights; and already it would take a 2000 page book just to thoroughly
review CURRENT progress, and by the time it would published, it would be sadly
out of date. Every current study reveals
a half dozen factors that need extensive study.
The rate of growth of solid information in climatology is
exponential. This is the major reason
there are so few up to date books written about the subject. They are out of date even before the
manuscripts are finished, much less published.
This is very frustrating to those rightfully interested in the subject,
but the web at least makes following the advances in the subject POSSIBLE, it
just requires more work than walking into a major bookstore and purchasing a
"New in Hardback-Non Fiction." and going home confident that this one
volume will make you a pseudo-authority on climate change.
This mini essay has already
gone way past my intentions in length, so I'll pause for now; but expect
updates.
Mo
A Gentleman and a Scholar
June 13, 2014
Austin, Texas
