Future IOWA Weather
So, now that we IOWANS have endured our first wave of 4-degree F
temperatures and less this winter, what is all the hubbub about global
temperature change?
Let us put it in terms we can understand. Humans put thousands of
pounds per day of carbon dioxide and other nasty items into our air
from our activities. More and more of us have become aware that
these behaviors are not good for our health or for the status of our
weather. According to the Sierra Club, the last four years have
been the warmest since 1861 records were kept. If you happen to
look at the forecast for the end of this week, at least here in eastern
IOWA, we will be close to 60 degrees F by Thursday or Friday.
This is not necessarily a good thing. Let's look at what the
Sierra Club says about this because the consequences of global climate
change will be felt locally by IOWANS and our economy.
The world's leading scientists project that during our children's
lifetimes, global warming will raise the average temperature of the
planet by 2.7 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Earth is only 5 to 9 degrees warmer today than it was 10,000 years
ago during the last ice age. Throughout history, major shifts in
temperature occurred at a rate of a few degrees over thousands of
years. They were accompanied by radical ecological changes, including
the extinction of many species. Manmade global warming is occurring
much faster – faster, in fact, than at any time in the past 10,000
years. Unless we slow and ultimately reverse the buildup of greenhouse
gases, we will have decades, not millennia, to try to adapt to radical
changes in weather patterns, sea levels and serious threats to human
health. Increased flooding, storms and agricultural losses could
devastate our economy. Plants and animals that cannot adapt to new
conditions will become extinct.
But How Much of a Difference Can a Few Degrees Make?
Plenty.
The human race is engaged in the largest and most dangerous experiment
in history – an experiment to see what will happen to our health and
the health of our planet when we change our atmosphere and our climate.
This is not some deliberate scientific inquiry. It is an uncontrolled
experiment on the environment of the Earth, and we're gambling our
children's future on its outcome. The results of this pollution are
already significant. We have increased levels of carbon dioxide (CO2),
the primary global warming gas, in our atmosphere by 30 percent in the
past 100 years. Some regions of the world have already warmed by as
much as 5 degrees Fahrenheit. Physicians at Harvard University and
Johns Hopkins medical schools and other medical institutions have
issued grim assessments that global warming may already be causing the
spread of infectious diseases and increasing heat-wave deaths. Extreme
weather events have become more common. Plants and animals around the
world are shifting their ranges in an effort to escape a changing
climate.
The rapid buildup of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere is the source
of the problem. By burning ever-increasing quantities of coal, oil and
gas, we are choking our planet in a cloud of this pollution. If we
don't begin to act now to curb global warming, our children will live
in a world where the climate will be far less hospitable than it is
today.
The current Washington, D.C. administration has a Clogged Skies Policy
that does nothing more than give a pass to energy industries and other
corporations that spew killing toxins into our atmosphere. Current
administrators have given their plan a different name, but I choose to
call it EXACTLY what it is: THE CLOGGED SKIES POLICY. For you
see, this current administration is WEAK when it comes to keeping
cancer-causing, asthma-inducing products out of our lives. The
businesses that choose to slide under the radar and not be progressive
and benevolent enough to do the right thing, are going to continue to
contribute to the ill health of us all.
So, are you asking yourself what you can do? Look around your
town, your county, your state, and nearby states to see where the
pollution in your area is coming from. Then take action. It
is as close as looking in your own backyard.
For more information and to see what you can do to alleviate this problem, go to: www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming/overview/
See also the September 2004 issue of National Geographic or go to their site: www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine
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