Climate Change

I noticed in my weekly routine of checking up on the FaceBook world that there was a conversation by some people I knew in high school who were excited because the Sacramento weather wasn't up to its usual crushing-dry-heat self. I haven't been there since last August, so I have no firsthand knowledge, but these folks began questioning the validity of the phenomena of Global Warming. 

I just wanted to say that the way I understand the science behind Global Warming is that it doesn't always mean that every place will be getting hotter. The term "Global Warming" has more to do with the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans, and not whether or not Carmichael is 110 for two weeks straight.

Slight changes in the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans could wreak all kinds of havoc in all sorts of places. One noticeable thing is a shift in normal patterns for different locations. To that end, it makes sense that the summer in Northern California might not be as unbearably hot as in the past. This summer here in New York has been anything but normal. 

Last year, the week before we left for our Mexico wedding, the City was gripped by a heat wave; humidity was heavy and you couldn't get dry after taking a shower. It was all you could do to keep cool laying around in front of the fan. This year? We've had more rain than in previous summers, more high-temps being lower than average, and not a single day over 90. Some days and evenings have been gorgeous, but we're waiting for the real thing, the Summer, to finally hit.

I've heard it said that this year in Major League baseball there have been more rainouts than in any other season, and we just hit July.

A few years ago it was 72 in January. Two days later it snowed. This past winter was the wettest and snowiest since we moved here (which was appreciated by some). When we went to Europe in '05 it rained for six of the seven-and-a-half weeks we were there, making it the wettest summer in Europe in a century. 

The changing of the understanding of normal is just a symptom. It can't be denied that the atmosphere and the oceans are getting warmer. It can be, and routinely is, denied that we as humans have anything to do with it. Whether this is right or wrong (wrong) doesn't negate that human-induced carbon emissions are at least adding to the problem, and that, if we could do something to help slow the change, we should for posterity's sake.

Like I said in a earlier post, the technology is there for America to drastically reduce its amount of atmospheric carbon emissions...who's going to convince, or worse, try to force China and India to adopt the same standards that we can't even bring to turn in our land?