The cute, fuzzy brown-eyed creature above is a spectacled flying fox. Last year in Australia, throughout two days in November, about 23,000 of them — a third of the country’s population — dropped from the sky and trees. This mass death was caused by heat stress. Temperatures had reached record-breaking highs. One conservationist called bats “the canary in the coal mine for climate change.”
The last four years — 2015 through 2018 — have been recorded as having the highest mean temperatures, globally, since record-keeping began. A look at Earth’s average temperatures as charted by Berkley Earth shows a long-term trend toward global warming. It is unmistakeable that, in the last several decades, temperatures have increased — steadily and significantly.
The reason is the “greenhouse effect.” The Earth is surrounded by a layer of gasses that protect it from the sun while trapping just enough energy to keep us warm at night. The gases that hold heat within the atmosphere are “greenhouse gases.” Natural levels of these gases are necessary to sustain life. But when these gasses increase unnaturally, the earth warms. Over the last several decades, humans have caused increased emissions of greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.
Humans have been adding about 35 billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere a year through fossil fuel emissions. As the U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration records, carbon dioxide levels have steadily increased. (Graph here.)
Although mosts scientists agree that humans cause global warming, a massive campaign of disinformation confuses and divides the public. Most powerful in the United States, this denial machine is driven by the fossil fuel industry — ExxonMobile, Shell, BP, Chevron, Valero, Koch industries, etc. The fossil fuel industry funds organizations[ that create denial propaganda. It donates millions to politicians, such as, for example, Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe, who for several years chaired the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. He even wrote a book to promote climate change denial: The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future. Inhofe is just one example.
Last month, record-cold temperatures hit the mid-West. Another famous climate-change denier tweeted:
Trump was right about one thing: In the Midwest, it was cold. Chicago had become “Chiberia.” But those temperatures were not because global warming had passed. An expanse of swirling Arctic air — the “polar vortex” — had split, pushing Arctic winds south. Some scientists are still studying the polar vortex split but many identify global warming, and the melting of Arctic sea ice, as an influence.[
It’s important to realize that cold temperatures do not mean global warming is slowing. There is difference between local weather and global climate. While one location might get colder temperatures than average, average temperatures over the world as a whole continue to get warmer.[
The warmer the Earth gets, the harder it becomes to cool. One reason is a process known as “Arctic amplification” caused by melting sea ice. The white color of ice normally reflects away the sun’s heat. But after the ice melts, the remaining brown dirt or dark-colored ocean absorbs heat. In the last few years, Arctic temperatures have increased at a rate significantly higher than the Earth’s mean temperatures, which means more ice is melting.
Another reason global warming is difficult to counteract is that, with increased warmth comes dryness. When soil dries, plants do not absorb as much carbon dioxide as they do when they thrive. Also as the soil warms, microorganisms in it become more productive and release more carbon dioxide.[
OK, the Earth is warming. Why is that so bad?
For one, as you can see from the polar vortex, weather gets more severe. Warming of tropical oceans leads to bigger storms, more hurricanes, and more flooding.[ You will also see more droughts. Extreme weather events damage crops and property and injure or kill people.
Air pollution worsens, causing more asthma and exacerbating lung diseases.
Animal species become extinct, and ecosystems are disrupted.
Increased levels of carbon dioxide cause ocean waters to become more acidic. This acidity, coupled with warmer temperatures, has already killed miles of coral. When coral reefs die, so do entire ecosystems of fish and sea creatures, which billions of people rely on for food sources.
It’s not just coral. Shell fish like mollusks, even crabs, are also affected. In the Pacific Northwest, a multi-million-dollar oyster industry was hit severely in recent years as oysters died off.
Perhaps one of the scariest effects — at least for those of us in Florida — is that the sea levels will rise. This is already happening. Miami Beach has something called “sunny day flooding.“ It will be a sunny day, yet water rises. The city has spent, and continues to spend, hundreds of millions of dollars in drainage upgrades, pumps, and seawall improvements. The communities that will suffer the worst, however, are the small island nations, some of which may end up completely underwater.
What can we do to combat global warming?
First, vote for leaders who will fight climate change. The U.S. government spends billions of dollars supporting the oil and gas industries through fossil fuel subsidies. Seek out and vote for for leaders who will end these subsidies, invest in renewable energies, and leave fossil fuels in the ground. Speak out enough so that politicians will listen.
Consume differently: what you eat, what you buy, how you get your power.
Transition to renewable energy. Away from fossil fuels, toward solar and wind, and encourage companies to do so.
Eat less meat and dairy— particularly beef. Methane from the beef industry makes up about 10 to 12% of the US’s total greenhouse omissions. Combined, the five biggest meat and dairy corporations in the world produce more emissions than ExxonMobil, Shell, or BP. Simply cutting the amount of beef you eat by half or even a quarter can make a significant impact on the environment.
We only have one planet. We can’t control the past. But we can control how we live our lives, how we consume, and how we get involved.
