When it comes to carbon dioxide induced climate change, most people dont realize that the biggest threat to our environment and climate is not airborne CO² but CO² that is eventually absorbed by the ocean. One of the less well-publicized aspects of climate change is that the ocean acts like a sponge for CO² and it’s just about reached its safe limit. In fact, seawater holds 140 times more CO² than air. Because of this fact, the ocean is steadily becoming more acidic from all of the increased carbon dioxide that pollutants release into the air. This in turn poisons delicate ecosystems like coral reefs that keep the ocean healthy. While many Americans recognize that climate change is a fact, they dont feel directly affected by it and have therefore become complacent. Contrary to this statement, we HAVE been directly affected. The problem is we dont associate its direct effect on us with climate change. That effect I am speaking of is last years unusually cold and intense winter weather in the United States. Those who accept climate change still dont realize that this is a direct result of it and those who deny climate change actually use the drastically cold winter our country recently experienced as a charade to continue their endgame - increasing corporate profits. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. When polar ice caps become dirty and dark from pollution, they absorb more light which causes them to warm. This increased retention of heat turns into a cascade of exponentially increasing ice melt. This warming not only pours fresh water into the oceans, increasing sea level rise (leading to an eventual disruption of oceanic cycles like the Gulf Stream), but it also causes other areas of the world to have an opposite reaction, that is temporary cooling. While poisoning of the oceans with CO² is deleterious to its ecosystems, its effect is less apparent to people living in the United States because our coastlines have not started significantly shrinking yet like they have in other parts of the world. People in other countries, particularly South Asia, have already lost entire towns to the miles of coastline the rising ocean level have recently claimed as its own. Until aspects of our environment and life are substantially affected, even those who accept climate change are unlikely to change. If an unusually cold and intense winter are not enough to elicit change, then what will it take climatologically before every American pursues a solution to our global meltdown? The problem, however, is that by the time an event causes us to finally see the need to change, it might be too late.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 21:35:56 +0000
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