Climate Change

Climate Change by Satish KS

Abrupt Climate Change Requires Fast Solutions

We no doubt have heard about global warming and how it is predicted to change the earth's atmosphere by the end of this century. This century has just begun, we have 92 years left to go, and all of us reading this article will be gone by then. Of course we want a better environment for the people yet to come.

However the data suggests that abrupt climate change is more likely to occur. The changes in our global climate within the last ten years indicate that abrupt climate change has already occurred. It is time to open up our eyes and do something about global warming and climate change before it is too late.

There are still some common myths and misunderstanding about abrupt climate change that needs to be dispelled. Global temperatures have been recorded since 1860, and although the average temperature has risen by about .6 degrees Celsius over the entire century, the last eleven years have produced the hottest years recorded. Furthermore, six of those years were in fact the warmest and have been recorded since 1990. Those statistics alone increase the global warming rate by 1 full degree Celsius over the last century.

Although abrupt climate change is being played down by those who insist that it has occurred by natural causes, and that in an of itself means that it is quite normal to have these temperature variations across time, there is no doubt that man has played a part in this acceleration by releasing carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons within the atmosphere. What we do not know for sure is how much natural conditions, such as storm patterns like El Nino, volcanic ash, and changes in the Sun's energy contributes to abrupt climate change, anymore than we know how much anthropogenic causes has contributed to this situation.

Another misconception is that the air is the only transporter of heat. Actually the air and the oceans transport heat around the world. The oceans store carbon dioxide, heat, freshwater and salt. Seaweed stores more heat than the atmosphere, but the general differences are that heat can travel faster in the air than in the waters that feed different areas of the globe.

The Atlantic Ocean has the ability to (the Atlantic Heat Pump) transport more warm water to the Artic than the Pacific Ocean. Ocean currents have two properties; they travel by wind and density. The density is the amount of salt coupled with the ocean's water temperature, this density is known as thermohaline circulation and acts as an ocean conveyor belt circulating cooler waters at its depth going in one direction and warmer waters that are less dense traveling in the opposite direction. Changes in this system brought on by melting ice and the absorption of fresh water into the oceans will change the chemical compound of the oceans. This in turn will interfere with the natural Atlantic Heat Pump function leading to a possible abrupt climate change. It is felt that the cooler period known as the Little Age Ice in Europe ending in 1850 was a result of the Atlantic Heat Pump water density change.

However, the major crisis at this time is not cooler weather but abrupt climate change as a result of warmer weather. Though the earth can be cooler in some places as evidenced by the Atlantic heat pump contributions, it is over all warming up at alarming speeds. We must become just as abrupt as the climate changes to come up with fast solutions to this world crisis.