Letter: Signs Of Climate Change, Signs Of Progress. Is It Enough?
Editor;
Our recent trial run of extended Death Valley temperatures and life in the New Normal presented by climate change should have been eye opening — but was it?
As local heat records fell and Europe and Africa both suffered the effects of long term climate change I look around to see how others were reacting at home, if at all. The highway was still jammed with cars, our forests continued to burn, and our lakes and rivers continued to bloom with deadly (mainly to fish) toxic algae created – partly – by our commitment to fertilizers and other chemicals.
Famine in parts of Africa, flooding in Pakistan and precursor storms and floods in the Southern states here at home. At least Congress was able to pull together long enough to enact the largest climate spending legislation in U.S. history with the Inflation Reduction Act but so much more needs to be done.
I only hope we’re able to take effective action in time.
Sincerely,
Marianne Liebalt, Walnut Creek
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No. It’s not enough and I doubt it will happen in time to save us.
Inexorable! Thwaites glacier, which sits primarily above the waterline, is separating from Antartica and slipping into the sea. Five days, five years, five decades from now this single sheet of ice, described interestingly enough as the size of Florida, will inexorably raise sea level a meter or two or three. That’s one ice sheet from the south pole. Ice sheets from Greenland are leaking bigly. No need to head for the beach during extreme heat, the beach will come to you. No worries, Doomsday cults are undoubtedly going to soon pack up your troubles. Whatever you do, Don’t Look Up.
Good movie and we’re adjusting our plans to acquire that beachfront property…
Is there enough time to wear our Sandwich boards acclaiming the “End of the World is near!”? Yosemite used to be covered by Glaciers. The SF Bay was a meandering River to the Coast out past the Farallon Islands. Glaciers covered half the US by two mile thick Glaciers. All gone now, all before Humans had anything to do with it.
So, NOW, we are here, and we have something to do with it, climate change. There is man-made causality. It’s not a question of what we didn’t do when we weren’t present. It’s a question for NOW. We have accelerated the climate change that would occur in our time absent humans, to our detriment. We are sapient, and capable of action. Will we? Will we act?
There is another something random here. Sandwich, Glaciers, River, Coast, Humans. You capitalized common words for no apparent reason. Code words to the mother ship perhaps lol.
Oookay…
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/geology/glaciers-and-glaciation/north-american-glaciation
History Channel ‘How the Earth was made” is a credible documentary series.
https://www.history.com/shows/how-the-earth-was-made
National Geographic “Drain the Oceans” is an enlightening documentary series.
https://www.natgeotv.com/za/shows/natgeo/drain-the-oceans#episodes-t4
David where to you get Cult like info from? Al Gore, talk about a mother ship. XD
You didn’t bother to explain your idiosyncratic capitalization decisions. A finger twitch perhaps. There is a backspace key for corrections.
I see you are familiar with internet access. Try googling Thwaites Glacier news. There are abundant current news sources describing the problem of melting ice and sea level rise. Once they cut loose of the land, the arithmetic is pretty simple.
Looking forward to voting in a few weeks.