Whenever a newspaper prints or posts an article regarding climate change, I am always dismayed and shocked by some of the comments these articles generate.
We used to have to go to a public library to research facts about a topic.
Now we live in a time where, with the click of a mouse, we can do research and look at raw data sets that one does not need a doctorate in to interpret.
I recently read a response to an article in The 撸奶社区 [Iconic B.C. ski resort will face existential threat from climate change, says scientist published on Jan. 15] about the changes at Whistler-Blackcomb, where one person replied with a statement that said, basically, “‘The weather has been really cold outside. Maybe we need Global Warming to warm us up.”
That lack of understanding of how climate change works is part of the problem.
Think of it this way: weather is local and current.
Look outside and see it is raining. A hundred miles away, look outside and it is sunny. The weather is current and localized to a specific place.
Climate is different. If the weather is local, the climate is global.
The two are not the same. Studying the climate and changes associated with it present a bigger picture, over a longer time period. . The news from those samples is not good.
We live in what is known as an inter-glacial era, a time where one ice age ended, and the Earth’s climate has been steadily and slowly warming. That warming has been steady over thousands of years. The bad news is, those ice core samples show something alarming happened in the 18th century. Greenhouse gas emissions rose at unprecedented rates. So what happened?
Humans discovered the power of coal. The Industrial Revolution. Coal powered our factories. We used it to heat our homes. Of course we had no clue as to what pumping tons of emissions pouring out of those factory chimneys would possibly have on our planet. In the 200 years since we just kept doing the same thing. Greenhouse gas emissions rose exponentially.
Jump to 2024. We can literally see the effects of all of this pollution on a global scale. Devastating wildfires in Canada. California. Australia. Europe. Unprecedented storms around the world.
It is like we are watching a train wreck happening before our eyes. Some choose to look away and deny what they are seeing. Others look and gasp in horror at the events unfolding before them.
I will be 59 in a few months. I look at what my generation and the generations that came before have done to this planet. I have children in their mid 20s. We have left our planet in a terrible state. Our children, and their children will look back at us, point their fingers, and say, ‘What have you done? What were you thinking?’
Michael Lonergan
Squamish
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