07-01 Au Contraire

My goodness. Our five-month holiday in California was accompanied by wet and cool weather at a time when it is usually dry and mild. And how about at home in Ontario where for the first summer in 12 years I have not had to water the lawn.
This is not sexy stuff, but it is climate change? If you’re a social democrat: “Action should be taken now.” “We need to work on this issue with our international partners.” This would be the Liberal response. And, “I do not trust the science.” Sounds like the Conservative response, speaking for the fossil fuel industry.
“Funning” a bit here. But climate change has been seriously politicized all over the world.
It was only a few years ago that Mary and I went around the Horn on a cruise, and down to the Antarctic. It was an experience of a life-time seeing the massive mountains of ice and snow. And seeing thousands of penguins on a hillside, was really something.
Those that claim massive melting of the Arctic and Antarctic and a rise in sea levels is the future impact of global warming are providing frightening predictions of our future. The cartoon makes fun of this kind of end-of-the-world scenario. But do not mistake the reality that the necessary mountains of ice and snow that could create a global crisis are there to melt.
We stopped the ship for a day outside the Polish research station where scientists are measuring the history of our weather by analysing the gases in core samples of snow. In the area where they work the core samples are as old as 4000 years. In other areas of the Antarctic they have found core samples that are a million years old.
Seven scientists, geologists and biologists, all with good English, came ashore and talked about global warming with the passengers for about three hours.
They did not agree with the consensus of most of the world’s climatologists that the burning of fossil fuels is increasing the levels of carbon dioxide and preventing the natural escape of heat into the atmosphere. It is that and more, to summarize our meeting.
My first reaction after about an hour was the level of complexity of the issue of climate change.
It made me think of the debate over tax reform back in 1970, where you could only talk about 20% of the issues because of their complexity. So, lots of political fudging when you are playing politics with issues the public cannot comprehend.
After another hour of “techy talk”, I found my left eye looking seriously at my right eye in confusion. Especially when they tried to explain how we can have variations in solar output that impacts climate change.
And so interesting to learn about periods in the geological record when we had much higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and much higher climatic temperatures.
But the scary part of the afternoon was that they believed that the period of global warming we are entering cannot be stopped, and that every period of global warming in our history has been accompanied by “massive specie loss”.
There were 1500 people in the auditorium and you could not hear a pin drop.
Someone asked if they disputed all the science that the levels of carbon dioxide have increased over the last 100 years. They said they did not dispute the science but believed the extra carbon dioxide was not enough to account for the observed warming. Phew.
Other things were happening, they explained, to cause climate change, but again they surprised everyone when they said that scientists do not fully understand all the things that impact our weather systems.
And yes, to another question about volcanoes causing climate change but only temporarily.
It was a great experience to hear from the minority opinion. It made me resolve to take the issue seriously. Perhaps an electric car is in my future. Or even more seriously, perhaps fighting climate change will become a new religion.