Global Warming

Moved this post from my soon-to-be-gone political blog. First posted this January 2006.

I'm going to post my reviews of books on the subject on this blog as well.

High Tide by Mark Lynas
This book seems a good start at understanding the issue of global warming because it is just one guy going around the world and asking real folks to explain what they are seeing in their home environments. As the old bargeman in the UK and his frail wife point out, "Global warming is bothering everybody now - but what can you do? With the floods, storms and sea level rise everyone's getting more concerned."

Lynas, a journalist, travels through the UK, and to Alaska, the Pacific islands, China, the US, and Peru. What immediately struck me about the book was the willingness of the people he meets to go out of their way to show a stranger the impact of global warming in their area once they understood what the author was about. They were all mystified and worried about the changes they were seeing all around them. The UK is having record-setting storms and flooding. Alaska's permafrost is melting and lakes are drying up. Pacific islands are disappearing or are projected to disappear. China is experiencing further desertification and brutal dust storms. Could global warming make a bad situation worse? Hurricanes in the US, while more frequent because we are in an active cycle, could also become more damaging if there was also an increase in temperature and rise in sea levels in the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico. Peru's tropical glaciers are shrinking or are completely gone.

This author clearly believes global warming will be a disaster in the twenty-first century and beyond if something isn't done. And he backs up his assertions with interviews with scientists in the field and many citations from the scientific literature. He also gives first hand accounts on the other side of the question, as he does with the Eskimo oil field workers in Alaska. In addition, he gives a good outline of the Kyoto protocol negotiations and lists what individuals can do themselves. But are some of the scientists wrong? The author is clearly biased and on a crusade of sorts. This is a good thing. We can balance it out with other readings. It is a big issue, to say the least, which will bend and stretch your mind, which is all for the good. We are depending on you to be thoughtful and informed.

This book is a great resource just for the pages of Campaigns and Contacts listed at the back.

This is a satellite image of China in 1999. I have nothing to compare it to, but that seems an awful lot of desert and too little farmland to sustain a population the size of China's.

There is an incredible amount of information on global warming for teens out there on the internet. I'll post a few that got my attention.

Will start with our own EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). Has a link for kids, too.
http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/index.html
Exploring the Environment, developed with NASA.
http://www.cotf.edu/ete/
I found these two using KidsClick. There are more. See the link on the sidebar ( -->).

It is always nice to see a good illustration. I found this site by going to the National Geographic/ Wild World website on the sidebar (-->).
http://www.climatehotmap.org/index.html
Here is a UN site.
http://www.ipcc.ch/

I was wondering what percent of oil consumption in the US came from Alaska oil and found this article in the Washington Post. If you read the book you will know why it interested me.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/06/AR2005060601742_pf.html

How I got started on this project.

Being able to email people is a neverending wonder to me. Just for the heck of it I thought I would check in on my ex-brother-in-law just by doing a search on his name. He is an atmospheric physicist and director of something called HITRAN. See description below from their website:

"HITRAN is an acronym for high-resolution transmission molecular absorption database. HITRAN is a compilation of spectroscopic parameters that a variety of computer codes use to predict and simulate the transmission and emission of light in the atmosphere."

He was interviewed by In-Cites in 2004. See link below:

http://www.in-cites.com/papers/LaurenceRothman.html

From the reporter for In-Cites:
"What’s been the biggest surprise over the last 40 years?"

From Laurence S. Rothman, director of HITRAN:
"Well, one of them is how many things man is putting up there. It makes my job never-ending. I just added a new molecule to the database that I can’t even pronounce. It gets a little strange. We have all these new gasses that replace CFCs, which attack the ozone, but the new gasses are long-lived and have other effects. They become greenhouse gasses. The only solution is to have fewer humans."

This part of the interview jumped out at me, and I thought I would look into posting a few reviews of books about the atmosphere and the climate. I was also motivated after reading Isabel Allende's book about Chile, My Invented Country, and reading about the people of Punta Arenas in Chile who live under the hole in the ozone. Oh, boy, that is another issue.

A Guide to The End of the World: Everything you never wanted to know
by Bill McGuire
This sentence on the book jacket caught my eye: "Have you ever wondered if global warming really exists, what the consequences might be of a giant sea wave striking coastal cities, or whether an asteroid impact could really consign humankind to the fate of the dinosaurs?" Remember my post on T. Rex and the Crater of Doom? You might be happy to hear they are keeping track of the known asteroids. The comets, however, are another issue. In your science classes and from T. Rex, I hope you read it, you know how scientists work. It is give and take on possible causes of effects, over much time, until everyone, almost, agree on the probability they are almost correct. This scientist, a volcanologist and "expert on the ominously-titled 'high-impact, low-frequency mega-geohazards'", will lay out for you a truthful portrait of dear old earth, our home, and cover the threats to it, scientifically, one by one. It is written with wit and good science. Enjoy. And take a deep breath. There is plenty of time for you to sort this all out and act wisely. I hope. The main thing to remember is you belong to very intelligent, creative, and adaptable species, and at your best, have a long heritage of ethical behavior.

They are also monitoring the possible super-volcano a little too close to us for comfort. Just thought you would like to know that, too.
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/monitoring.html
And don't forget Amboy Crater, Long Valley, and the San Francisco area in Arizona, which are also potential volcano threats according to the USGS.
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/
I could go on and on, but I won't, because you will find many good ideas in this book for research papers in the earth sciences and disaster preparedness. Did I mention earthquakes?

Addendum: Please recall I posted this review before hurricane Katrina blasted into the gulf coast of the US. I approached this subject with a bit of humour, which now, in retrospect, might be taken as a little inappropriate due to the tragic turn of events in and around New Orleans in the aftermath of this disaster. This is not a laughing matter and we as a nation have our work cut out for us to prepare for and survive these natural disasters. I have great faith in you to contribute to the work ahead.


Here is a link to the website about Al Gore's new documentary,
An Inconvenient Truth.
http://www.climatecrisis.net/index.html