The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!
As I have mentioned before, I am not a scientist. Sometimes, my lack of knowledge in the field of science bothers me. It has even been a source of personal embarrassment to me, not least of all because my grandfather (on my mother's side) was a scientist. So by way of comparison, my own inadequacies with regards to scientific knowledge feels...well, unjustified.
Again, a source of some embarrassment.
That said, I will say this much: I do not try to go out of my way to challenge the well-earned body of knowledge of the scientific community. In that regard, I know my limitations.
While I cannot exactly explain in great detail what global warming or climate change is, it feels to me that I am hardly in any position to actually question or challenge it, or dismiss it as some mere "theory." Not only did experts in the fields (again, actual scientists) predict these things many decades ago, but what they predicted proved eerily accurate. If you go beyond what the name "global warming" suggests - a constant and relentless warming all around the globe without regional or seasonal variation appears to be what most people think of - and actually try to understand what it is that scientists actually predicted, you get something that suggests that weather patterns would seem to grow less stable. That there would be more severe storms than ever before, that some regions would experience record floods while other regions would experience record droughts. Yet the overall trend - not a systematic rule across the board, but the overall trend around the globe - would be that the temperatures around the planet tend to grow warmer.
It seems to me that this is exactly what has happened.
Sure enough, it feels like we have witnessed more extreme weather conditions all around the world. I have attempted to document some of these in recent years - particularly this year - with blog entries focusing especially on record hot temperatures all around the world. In recent years, record hot temperatures established in, say, 2015 or 2017 in many regions across the globe were surpassed with new record hot temperatures within two years, and those records were themselves eclipsed with new records within two years, and so on and so forth. That is not the rule, but again, that appears to be the overall trend. And yes, we have seen record numbers of storms and increased severity in those storms. Look at what Melissa just did to Jamaica and Cuba.
So yeah, this sure seems like it is happening. And it's not because former Florida Governor Rick Scott or now American President Donald Trump try to censor climate change and prevent any discussion on this matter that will prevent all of this from being the truth. It is just censorship of what sure appears at this point to be a truth that we should all be aware of. Typically, it's self-defeating, which feels like it sums up the overall human response to climate change from the first, frankly.
While my own understanding of this phenomena is limited, I have tried to understand it. I went to see a lecture by the distinguished American climatologist James Hansen, who was instrumental in bringing awareness of the issues regarding climate change to the general public when he testified before Congress back in 1988. Admittedly, I quickly was lost in trying to follow his lecture once he got into the specifics of how it works. Again, much to my embarrassment.
At least I did not figure that these were grounds for me to challenge his expertise.
So now, I wanted to share this video. The topic is related to climate change, but it is a little different. Perhaps, in fact, it is not what you expect.
Scientist and novelist Hank Green explains his own trepidation regarding an unsettling trend which he feels will impact much of Europe and, in this particular case, Ireland. This phenomenon which he discusses is called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). It is a major ocean current system in the Atlantic Ocean which effectively regulates climate patterns in Europe as it transports warm water north and cold water south. This is why European cities which are much farther north of much colder cities and regions in North America nevertheless have more moderate weather.
But this is changing. Apparently, it can change quite a great deal, and in a relative hurry.
I have watched this video a few times, so I more or less got the general idea, even if my own ability to explain it in detail remains extremely limited.
Take a look at the video and see what you think:
I am Scared for Ireland...
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