In May of 2019, author and environmentalist, Bill McKibben tweeted: “Thinking about Mother Nature today. As of this morning, her CO2 concentration topped 415 ppm (parts per million) for the first time in many many millions of years.” He was referring to the Pliocene when atmospheric carbon was over 400 ppm, the poles were a balmy 60 degrees F., and sea level was more than 80 feet higher than now.
Carbon dioxide (CO2), is known to trap heat in the atmosphere. Around the start of the Industrial Revolution (1760), atmospheric CO2 was at only 270 ppm. But it began to be significantly released with the burning of coal, then oil and gas. Recent decades have seen the largest increases.
Coal, oil, and gas are NOT just fuel. They resulted from hundreds of millions of years of carbon being removed from the atmosphere via photosynthesis, and sequestered from the atmosphere, as fossils. The burning of these fossils (fuels), by the billions upon billions of tons, has released immense amounts of CO2 back into the atmosphere in only a couple centuries.
The resulting impacts of Global Warming are in the news every day; from forest fires to floods to droughts. These factors contribute to mass migrations of people. Connect the dots…
Three fourths of Earth’s surface is water. Sea surface temperature has been consistently higher during the past three decades than at any other time since 1880, particularly from about 1970 to the present.
All over the planet, glaciers are retreating. In Glacier National Park, only a few glaciers remain, and soon there will be none. Coincident with this fact, sea level is steadily rising. Over the past hundred years, it has risen by over a millimeter each year. Currently the rate is 3.3 millimeters per year.
Why has this unprecedented assault on our atmosphere not been a major topic in politics, in the news, or in school curricula? One factor is the obfuscation of disinformation. But there’s also another factor… John Alroy, a biology professor at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, put it very well…“a geologically instantaneous ecological catastrophe too gradual to be perceived by the people who unleashed it.”
Our vocabulary is problematic. We label our life support system, not with words such as, “essential, home, beautiful, or spiritual,” but as “natural resources.” The implication is… to be exploited and consumed. Blank spaces on the map are seen not as highly developed habitats, but as “undeveloped,” handy places to be pillaged, plundered, and paved. This represents still more CO2 released.
The previous administration tried to deal with the devastating rise of global warming the same way they dealt with the perils of pandemic… denial. The only thing this lack of leadership accomplished was delayed response, exacerbating the impact.
Dr. Naomi Oreskes, a noted author, Geologist, and Science Historian, is concerned about recent trends toward disinformation. She states, “If one looks at climate change denial — or any other kind of contrarian narratives that are promoted in popular culture — one almost always finds that the contrarians are drawing on an individualistic trope. …. a primary role of journalism is to objectively and accurately portray facts. Overwhelming consensus of the scientific community, for example, should be portrayed as such. This leads to informed voters, which is the foundation of a functioning democracy.”
We need our media to emphasize science through proper journalism, and minimize “info-tainment.”
Dale Goodner, Algoma, WI