Global Warming + Climate Change = Global Climate Change

We have politicized the term Global Warming so much that it is either pegged far left or far right with how it is defined. The corner stone of this argument is the issue of human intervention in the warming process. Are we the cause, or as a minimum are we accelerating the warming trend through our excessive use (compared to natural release) of fossil fuels and the subsequent release of CO2?


Perhaps the conflict is because Al Gore championed the term Global Warming a few years ago and the world either aligned with him or pulled way back. It didn't help that a well funded group of 'Non-Believers' attempted to trash the idea by using short them cyclical data to argue against warming...some of them have now come over to the side of "change"...others remain among the opposition. Their side, however, was right to point out that scientists on the "warming" side falsified their results in reports...making things look worse than the facts supported... science is about disproving a hypothesis, not stacking the books to prove your point.

So... both sides are wrong...both sides are right...???  Coldest winters, hottest summers...ice storms in new regions...drought everywhere...   Which is it, or is there common ground? What both sides should recognize is that changes in temperature will change the flow of both water (currents are impacted by temperature) and air...jet streams being currents...so there will be changes in our weather due to warming trends.

To understand the issue we need to look to the big picture. The earth has warmed and cooled several times in the past 400 million years...with cycles that range from a millions of years apart to 6 or 7 hundred thousand years apart. And when we look at our current cycle we find that we are in a warming trend...a natural warming trend...that will result in rising seas and changing weather. The question isn't if we are in the warming trend... or for that matter if it will cool down in the future...we are and it will. The more important question is whether or not man is causing a much more rapid change to the cycle and after that...how will we survive the global change we will experience?

Perhaps we should be looking at what our rapid growth...a population of 7.4 billion humans on earth in just 15000 years (or less) ...considering that modern man (homo sapient) first evolved about 200,000 years ago and was numbered in the tens of thousands about 15000 years ago... what a rush! Are we polluting the planet? Yes...more and more every day. Are we changing the atmospheric content of CO2...you bet we are. And our commercial processes and demand for red meat are adding other pollutants like Arsenic and Methane to the atmosphere as well. So let's put that argument to rest... we are polluting and no other biological creature has ever polluted that way we do...nor has any changed the ecological balance of the earth the way we do. Man makes change, and he makes no excuses for it...for the most part we perceive change as good and inevitable. And that is one of the traps... change is neither inevitable...nor necessarily good. We need to manage change in a way that will allow mankind...that's all of us, not just those in developed nations...to survive, advance, and prosper.

We are suffering an onslaught of Global Climate Change... natural in its direction but accelerated by what man has been doing to the planet over the past 100 or so years...after all, internal combustion engines are about 100 years old and mass energy production using coal is about that same age...and the warming facts...not biased by manipulation...shows that the demands of population have forced the reality of pollution onto all of us.

What can we do about this? Simple, let's stop using all fossil fuels... right now...no exceptions! Ok, so that won't work... but what if we focus on reduced use of carbon based fuels and improved our production processes to create a sustainable future? Yes...that's doable...and it is something we can all do...and do now.

Where can we find examples of actions we can take? Start with The Earth is Blue... Sylvia Earls, or Silent Spring...Rachel Carson, or be more progressive and read Reinventing Fire... The Rockie Mountain Institute... Go to the US EPA website www.epa.gov on sustainability... look at their recommendations...or go to the European Environment Agency  http://www.eea.europa.eu for their ideas...

Step one...decide to make a difference... step two...turn off the lights...