Should We Be Concerned About Climate Change?

To the editor:

Climate change is not a theory waiting to be proved. It is happening now, it is measurable, and the evidence for it can be found across the planet. The real argument is no longer about whether earth is warming. The argument is whether humanity has the political courage to confront what science is telling us before the consequences become catastrophic, before it is too late to do anything about it.

Earth’s climate has always changed because of natural forces. These include variations in Earth’s orbit and tilt, changes in solar energy, volcanic eruptions, shifting continents, changing ocean currents, natural fluctuations in greenhouse gases, and occasional asteroid impacts. Such processes caused ancient warm periods and ice ages, generally over long timescales. Scientists account for these natural influences, but these natural events cannot explain today’s rapid warming. Current evidence shows that human-produced greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, are the dominant cause.

Today, global temperatures are rising unusually rapidly, primarily because humans are burning coal, oil, and natural gas. These fuels release enormous amounts of carbon dioxide that trap heat in the atmosphere. Scientists can measure the cause-effect in atmospheric carbon and temperature patterns. Natural climate cycles still occur, but they cannot explain the speed and scale of modern warming. Human activity can.

Weather describes shortterm atmospheric conditions, today, this week, or one season. Climate describes long-term patterns measured over decades. A record cold winter in one region does not disprove global warming. Individual cold spells still occur while the planet’s overall average temperature continues rising, producing a long-term warming trend.

The evidence is overwhelming. Earth has warmed roughly two degrees Fahrenheit since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century. Glaciers are retreating. Greenland and Antarctica are losing ice. Sea levels are rising. Oceans are warming and becoming more acidic. Extreme heat is becoming more dangerous. Destructive flooding is occurring more and more as rainfall patterns are changing. Massive wildfires are increasingly frequent and destructive. Hurricanes are increasingly powerful and dangerous. The extinction of numerous wildlife species is accelerating.

Scientists have measured the increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide produced largely by burning coal, oil and natural gas. We have found the enemy and it is us, as Pogo said.

These conclusions do not come from a handful of environmental activists. They come from thousands of scientists working independently across dozens of countries, using satellites, weather stations, ocean buoys, ice cores, atmospheric measurements and more than a century of temperature records.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated unequivocally that human activities, principally greenhousegas emissions, are the major cause of rapid global warming and its devastating consequences..

Carbon dioxide does not care whether you are a Republican or Democrat. A melting glacier does not know whether you watch Fox News or MSNBC. The laws of physics do not change because voters dislike the economic consequences of accepting them.

Facts don’t give a damn what you believe.

The fossil-fuel economy is worth trillions of dollars. Oil, coal and natural-gas companies have enormous investments, and industries dependent upon inexpensive fossil fuels have strong economic incentives to resist policies that threaten their interests. Fossil-fuel companies and executives, like many other industries and interest groups, have spent heavily on lobbying, political contributions and campaigns intended to influence public policy.

Unfortunately the issue of climate science has increasingly become another battlefield in America’s culture wars. Renewable energy is attacked as “woke.” Environmentalists are mocked as “tree huggers.” Electric vehicles become political symbols. Wind turbines and solar panels somehow acquire partisan identities.

Nature could not care less. The fossil-fuel industry’s efforts to minimize the dangers of carbon dioxide emissions echo the tobacco industry’s campaign of the 1950s, when cigarette companies challenged mounting evidence linking smoking to lung cancer. In both cases, industries facing enormous financial losses emphasized scientific uncertainty, funded favorable research, questioned opposing scientists, and warned that regulation would harm the economy or individual freedom.

The similarity lies in the strategy: when evidence threatens a profitable product, creating public doubt can postpone regulation long after scientists recognize a serious danger.

The greatest danger from climate change is not that humanity suddenly disappears. The more plausible result is the gradual destabilization of the civilization upon which more than eight billion people depend.

Imagine increasingly brutal heat waves.Agricultural regions suffering repeated droughts. Water shortages affecting great cities. Coastal communities repeatedly flooded. Coral reefs and ecosystems collapsing. Insurance becoming unaffordable in vulnerable regions. Food prices rising as harvests become less predictable. Millions of people moving because their homelands have become increasingly difficult to inhabit.

Then consider what follows. Mass migration creates political instability. Food shortages produce unrest. Water shortages create conflict. Governments fail. Refugees cross borders. Nations become more authoritarian attempting to control disorder. Wars become more likely as populations compete for habitable land and resources. If you think fighting over oil has been brutal, imagine fighting over potable water.

Fossil fuels cannot and should not disappear tomorrow, but total dependence upon them and not attempting to transition to renewable sources of energy is irresponsible. Fossil fuels can be steadily reduced while maintaining reliable energy and protecting workers and consumers.

The greatest obstacle to doing something significant about climate change is what we choose to do about it now. Scientists have sounded the alarm. The facts are before us.

Future generations will know what we knew and when we knew it. They will have every right to judge us, to ask why we didn’t do something when we had the chance.