The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
recently released its yearly State of the Climate report and its findings
continue to support a global change in climate. Temperature across the globe
was 1.24°F higher than the 20th century average. Record warmth was
reported all across the world, from Russia to California and South America to
the Indian Ocean. But why does a one degree change in temperature matter?
According to NASA, “A one-degree global change is significant because it takes
a vast amount of heat to warm all the oceans, atmosphere, and land by that much…”
- A two degree drop was enough to put Earth into an ice age,
- A five degree drop buried North America in ice 20,000 years ago.
I cannot begin to imagine the possible scenarios surrounding
an increase in temperature if a drop of two degrees affected the earth so
drastically.
Of course it’s perfectly possible that the consensus is
wrong and the scientific data is over (or under) estimating the climate’s sensitivity
and a one degree change might be not have any effect on the earth at all and I’m
writing this blog for absolutely no reason at all. But it’s a massive gamble to
hope that scientists all over the world are wrong and that we won’t have our
houses flipped over by a hurricane or getting our cities buried in a never
ending flood. We can hope and pray for the best, but we all know best that the
world NEVER gives us everything we want. (Unless you’re a freak endowed with
unlimited wishes and powers beyond a puny mammal like I could ever imagine. Or
you just have some INSANE luck.)
In any case, if the theory is correct, we better get our
monies invested into energy efficient fuel. My proposal is to get some millionaires
investing more heavily into areas where we can reduce CO2 emissions. If the theory is right, they could be making
some big profits. And if the theory is wrong, well they can just ease off their
investments and lose a few hundred thousand dollars for the good of the planet.
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