By: John Knightly

John Knightly — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 16:12:00 +0000

You have hit on a topic that for the scientifically challenged seems “out there” and “not to be too concerned about.” As you have indicated, climatological changes have occurred many times in the past and have been the result of many natural factors such as major volcanic eruptions, el nino/la nina-type events, asteroid impacts, etc., etc., etc. Ice ages have come and gone throughout mostly non-recorded history. Geologically, global warming (and cooling) can be seen in the types of flora and fauna in the fossil record. Ice cores from the polar caps can also be used to document these events. You have indicated in your blog that we are actually coming off a “little ice age.” I believe global warming (a political term) is simply a natural process that would occur under any circumstance. The issue at hand, here, is that humans appear to have accelerated the process to where major changes are likely within a generation or two where this process took hundreds, if not thousands of years previously. “Rapid” change makes it harder to adapt to the said change. This is worrisome because the human race has invested so much time, effort, and resources into creating the world we are now comfortable in. In the past, species simply adapted to the new conditions and lived on or perished because change did not happen. When the change happens quickly, it is hard to deal with because we don’t want Guido’s Deli in Manhattan to “go under water soon because I was planning to eat lunch there next week; they have a killer pastrami on rye!” If nothing is done now, then our grandchildren likely will be saddled with the problem. Is this a problem we want to leave our grandchildren? I believe, as many in the scientific community do, that we as humans can affect change. Now is the time.

Comments on: Global Warming: Why Something Should Be Done About It

By: John Knightly