climate change bombshell

Climate change has hit the headlines again with the release of the latest IPCC report. Many prominent people, including the Prime Minister of Australia, voice their skepticism of the findings of the report. They do not believe that human activities could have had such a major impact. That is because they are so selective in their views and arguments. They have only to open their eyes to see what cities, skyscrapers, roads, airports, grids and numerous other items of infrastructure  have already done to the environment. The contribution to climate change is just one of the deleterious impacts of this growth and operation of infrastructure. But they will not do that because being realistic is not on their agenda. They mindlessly promote economic growth and to hell with the consequences.

Numerous scientists have devoted their careers to obtaining evidence on what is happening to various aspects of the climate, the associated response of flora and fauna and the impact on terrestrial and marine eco systems. Ironically, many organisms, such as beetles, are doing a better job of adapting to the changing climate than people! Scientists (unlike politicians) subject their findings to s systematic peer group review and this tends to make them conservative.

This has had the unfortunate effect of reducing the pressure on society to implement measures that will ameliorate the impact of the irreversible climate change (by reducing the rate of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels) and others that will help society to adapt to increasing storms, more floods and droughts together with rising sea levels.

However, there are bodies of concerned and knowledgeable people who are not so constrained in providing insight into the stark physical realities that will inevitably have to be faced. Arctic News provides insight into just one of these climate change bombshells , the Arctic Methane Monster. This is providing a valuable service, a wake up call. But will the powerful in society hear it above the rustle of dollars?

Epilogue

Climatologists have been telling us for years that irreversible, rapid climate change is under way, primarily because of the greenhouse gases from the industrial use of fossil fuels. The message is slowly getting through to the politicians in the industrialized countries. Ironically they now seem to believe that the climate change and ocean acidification processes can be tackled by introducing policies such as a carbon tax to encourage industry to reduce the rate of emissions. The global rate of emissions is still increasing despite mitigation policies in the EU and China.

The rate of greenhouse gas emissions is no longer the sole climate change issue. Climatologists continue to warn of the acceleration of climate change by positive feedback mechanisms. These include the reduction in Arctic sea ice and the release of methane from perm-frost and clathrates.

As usual, there are specialists who understand what is happening and are sponsoring sound measures to remedy the effect of climate change. Responsible authorities in London, York and the Netherlands are implementing measures to counter the impact of rising sea level. However, these remedial measures are, as yet. insignificant and impotent.

Despite the failure of society at large, and its leaders in particular, to understand the reality described by climatologists, the prognosis is quite clear - Hell is coming. It will make a major contribution to the senescence of our civilization. Surviving future generations will ponder in the Epilogue of the ecological system the causative factors in what went wrong.

Denis Frith