PP-Global Climate and Atmospheric Change 3

Who or What is Responsible? Discovering

The Smoking Gun

Environmental Global Climate Change

As illustrated in Kaufman (2006) environmental Science, there is an critical but important difference between climate and weather. Weather describes atmospheric conditions at a particular place and point in time and how weather can change from day to day; furthermore, Weather is described by a series of measurements such as temperature, precipitation, wind speed, cloud cover, and humidity.

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The Difference Between Climate and Weather

What is Climate?

Regardless of location, the annual pattern of weather reoccurs year after year. This repeating pattern of weather,

known as climate, represents the average weather conditions taking place over a long period in time.

Climate ChangeClimate change is draped within the rule rather than the exception; in fact, Climate may appear stable over one’s lifetime; nevertheless, this stability dissolves when

scientists compare temperature and precipitation over longer periods; thus, during some periods, our planet is warmer than it is today; conversely, during other periods,

over time, the planet was cooler; i.e. those cooler periods were “ice ages” and the most recent ice age lasted from 30,000 years before today until 12,000 years ago.

Subsequently, Was the recent Ice Age “The Little Ice Age” A factor of human result, or a Natural occurrence? Nature is a phenomena that is predicated on natures

reliance to act with the natural course of the planet and those physical mechanisms which occur naturally. What is that, you might ask?

Volcanism2000 years ago our planet had frequent natural geologic disturbances through tectonic movement that generated disastrous reactions within the atmosphere

and perhaps caused the natural near extinction of humanity ; therefore, as a result of this geologic reaction it caused an atmospheric phenomena that

blocked the natural sun light from entering the our inner atmosphere; consequently, blocking life's essential elements from their natural complex

duties in nature; such as, photosynthesis which was restricted through the veil of volcanic ash which acted as a blanket or mirror that reflected life's energy away from its appointed destination; therefore, there was a cooling of the planet and

from what we now understand this phenomena created “The Little Ice Age” a 700 year period of environmental challenge and human despondency .

SO! What does that have to do with today's Environmental Challenges of Today?

The two periods in time are different, but the same! You may ask, why is that?

2000 years ago nature was the smoking gun that processed the natural events that changed climate and in this case it was pre-human and pre-industrial; therefore, an act of nature.

Today, due to over population as well as resource overuse; therefore, post-industrial and the bullet from the smoking gun that human interference combined with natural events that created the firestorm of climatological events that challenge our ecosystems throughout the planet.

What are the examples and the evidence; moreover, what can we offer to humanity that is first the truth in the matter and second the proof in the

theory of human Interference?

Here is the Inconvenient truth and

incontrovertible Evidence

As Vice President during the Clinton Administration Al Gore pressed for the implementation of a carbon tax to encourage energy efficiency and to also

diversify the choices in energy better reflecting the true environmental costs of it’s use; this model was partially implemented in 1993. Gore went on to help

broker the 1997 Kyoto Protocol a dynamic partnership in an international treaty designed to curb harmful greenhouse gas emissions. The treaty was not

ratified in the United States after a 95 to 0 vote in the Senate. The primary objections stemmed from the exemptions the treaty gave to China and India,

whose industrial base and carbon footprint had grown rapidly and is feared that the exemptions would lead to further trade imbalances and off shoring

arrangement with those countries of China and India.

Gore presents the Keeling curve, which shows a pattern of steady increase’s in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since

1958.

The film's thesis i.e. An Inconvenient truth, (2006) is that

“Global warming is real, potentially catastrophic, and human-caused.”

Gore presents specific data that supports the thesis, including:The Keeling curve, measuring CO2 from the Mauna Loa Observatory.

The retreat of numerous glaciers is shown in before-and-after photographs.A study by researchers from the Physics Institute of the University of Bern as well as the European Project

for Ice Coring in Antarctica presenting data from Antarctic ice cores showing carbon dioxide concentrations higher than at any time during the past 650,000 years.

Temperature record since 1880 showing that the ten hottest years ever measured in this atmospheric record have all occurred in the last fourteen years.

A 2004 survey, by Naomi Oreskes of 928 peer-reviewed scientific articles on global climate change was published between 1993 and 2003. The survey, published as an editorial in the Journal of Science, and

found that every article either supported the human-caused global warming consensus or did not comment on it. Gore also presented a 2004 study by Max and Jules Boykoff showing 53% of articles that appeared in major US newspapers over a fourteen year period gave roughly equal attention to scientists who expressed views that global warming was caused by humans as they did to global warming skeptics, creating a false

balance.

EPICA and Vostok ice cores display the relationship between temperature and level of CO2 for the last 650,000 years.

(2006)

Gore's use of long ice core records of CO2 and temperature (from oxygen isotope measurements) in Antarctic ice cores to

illustrate the correlation between the two drew some scrutiny; Schmidt, Steig and Michael E. Mann back up Gore's data. Gore

stated that “the greenhouse gas levels and temperature changes over ice age signals had a complex relationship but that they

'fit'. Both of these statements are true," said Schmidt and Mann. "The complexity though is actually quite fascinating...a full

understanding of why CO2 changes in precisely the pattern that it does during ice ages is elusive, but among the most plausible

explanations is that increased received solar radiation in the southern hemisphere due to changes in Earth’s orbital geometry

warms the southern ocean, releasing CO2 into the atmosphere, which then leads to further warming through an enhanced

greenhouse effect. Gore’s brief explanation of course does not mention such complexities, but the crux of his point–that the

observed long-term relationship between CO2 and temperature in Antarctica supports our understanding of the warming

impact of increased CO2 concentrations–is correct. Moreover, our knowledge of why CO2 is changing now (fossil fuel burning)

is solid. We also know that CO2 is a greenhouse gas, and that the carbon cycle feedback is positive (increasing temperatures

lead to increasing CO2 and CH4), implying that future changes in CO2 will be larger than we might anticipate. Gore is careful

not to state what the temperature/CO2 scaling is, said Steig. Gore is making a qualitative point, which is entirely accurate. The

fact is that it would be difficult or impossible to explain past changes in temperature during the ice age cycles without CO2

changes. In that sense, the ice core CO2 and temperature correlation remains to be a suitable perception of the influence of

CO2 on climate."

There are opposing views to the theory of Global warming and some of these views state that the environmental alarmists, i.e. former Vice President Gore

and his followers don’t give all sides to the phenomena of Environmental Global Climate Change; consequently, constitute an unreal outcome no mater what evidence they correspond to this phenomena. These opposing views are Illustrated in a paper offered by Marlo Lewis, Jr. (2006). Advancing Liberty

– From the Economy to Ecology Al Gore's “An Inconvenient Truth” is: “One-sided, Misleading, Exaggerated, Speculative, and Wrong .”

What data can cause the disparity in this theory and Who

are the Skeptics?

An Inconvenient Truth or (AIT), former Vice President Al Gore’s book on “The

planetary emergency of global warming and what can be done about it,” details to be a

nonpartisan, non-ideological exposition of climate science and moral common sense.

In reality, “An Inconvenient Truth” is a colorfully illustrated lawyer’s brief for global

warming alarmism and energy rationalizing, their inferred smoking gun is proving the

human environmental crime. It is a J’Accuse hurled at a fossil fuel energy-based

civilization, especially the United States, and above all the Bush Administration and its

professed allies in the U.S. oil and auto industries that are also at fault.

Heavy words in opposition!

Never acknowledges the indispensable role of fossil fuels in alleviating hunger and poverty, extending human life spans, and democratizing consumer goods, literacy, leisure, and personal mobility.

Never acknowledges the environmental, health, and economic benefits of climatic warmth and the ongoing rise in the air’s carbon dioxide (CO2) content.

Never acknowledges the major role of natural variability in shrinking the snows of Kilimanjaro and other mountain glaciers.

Never mentions the 1976 regime shift in the Pacific Decade Oscillation, a natural ocean cycle, which is a major cause of recent climate change in Alaska.

Presents a graph tracking CO2 levels and global temperatures during the past 650,000 years, but never mentions the most significant point: Global temperatures were warmer than the present during each of the past four interglacial periods, even though CO2 levels were lower.

Never confronts a key implication of its assumption that climate is highly sensitive to CO2 emissions—that absent said emissions, global climate would be rapidly deteriorating into another ice age.

Neglects to mention that, due to the growth of urban heat islands, U.S. cities and towns will continually break temperature records, with or without help from global warming.

What is their evidence in opposition? Here are just a few of the many that are [One-Sided]

Implies that a two-page photograph of Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina shows that the glacier is melting away, even though the glacier’s terminal boundary has not changed in 90 years.

Implies that, during the past 650,000 years, changes in carbon dioxide levels preceded and largely caused changes in global temperature, whereas the causality mostly runs the other way, with CO2 changes trailing global temperature changes by hundreds to thousands of years.

Belittles as ideologically motivated the painstaking and now widely-accepted methodological critiques by Ross McKitrick of the University of Guelph in Ontario and Steve McIntyre of the Hockey Stick reconstruction of Northern Hemisphere climate history.

Cites increases in insurance payments to victims of hurricanes, floods, drought, tornadoes, wildfires, and other natural disasters as evidence of a global warming ravaged planet, even though the increases are chiefly due to socioeconomic factors such as population growth and development in high-risk coastal areas and cities.

Distracts readers from the main hurricane problem facing the United States: the ever-growing concentration of population and wealth in vulnerable coastal regions, which is partly a consequence of federal flood insurance and other political subsidies.

Ignores the societal factors—such as poverty—that typically overwhelm climatic factors in determining people’s risk of damage or death from hurricanes, floods, drought, tornadoes, wildfires, and disease.

Misleading

Exaggerates the certainty and hypes the importance of the alleged link between global warming and the frequency and severity of tropical storms.

Hypes the importance of NOAA running out of names (21 per year) for Atlantic hurricanes in 2005, and the fact that some storms continued into December. The practice of naming storms only goes back to 1953, and hurricane detection capabilities have improved dramatically since the 1950s, so the “record” number of named storms in 2005 may be an artifact of the resulting data. Also, Atlantic hurricanes continued into December in several previous years including 1878, 1887, and 1888.

Never explains why anyone should be alarmed about the current Arctic warming, considering that our stone-age ancestors survived—and likely benefited from— the much stronger and longer Arctic warming known as the Holocene Climate Optimum.

Portrays the cracking of the Ward Hunt ice shelf in 2002 as a portent of doom, even though the shelf was merely a remnant of a much larger Arctic ice formation that had already lost 90 percent of its area during 1906-1982.

Claims that polar bears “have been drowning in significant numbers,” but this is based on a single report that found four drowned polar bears in one month in one year, following an abrupt storm

Claims that global warming is creating “ecological niches” for “invasive alien species,” never mentioning other more important factors such as increases in trade, tourism, and urban heat islands. For example, due to population growth, Berlin warmed twice as much during 1886-1898 as the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates the entire world warmed during the 20th century.

Exaggerated

It seams that the opposing views stand out, or do they?

Indeed, as in any court room battle in opposing the characteristics of any theory goes to those that take all of the information, carefully analyze it,

and find the strongest points in favor or opposition and calculate the outcome of the strongest evidence and then conclude their verdict.

Without a doubt, both sides have a compelling theory and may views on the global challenge that faces humanity now and in the future; therefore, if we take all of this information and draw our own conclusions, what is it

that you as an individual would conclude? Is mankind the sole mastermind of global warming by having a population that is drawing

cynically close to over powering their carrying capacity or is nature and it reoccurring climate phenomena the culpable smoking gun; moreover,

could it be both?

Could both Nature and Mankind be a co-conspirator in Global

WarmingCertainly, this concept is an area that needs further

exploration and theoretical data to support such a theory. The arguments and aphorisms within the ongoing debate of

who is right and who is wrong and furthermore, the smoking gun of blame is a forgone conclusion; therefore, we as

humans need to look at this global challenge at a different perspective.

Finding the perpetrator that is the loan prospect and actuator of this crime against nature may be nature its self, maybe mankind helped, the overlying question is not who or what created this global environmental challenge; moreover,

who should take the blame. The issue before us is;

How Are We Going To Fix It!

Are both Nature and Mankind a co-conspirator in Environmental Global Climate Change? Do we really need to ask this question?

What's more Important isHow Are We Going To Fix It!

Indeed, the challenges before our species are daunting to say the least. The natural cycles of

our world are just being discovered and re-discovered every day, we have cracked the code of

our own genetic makeup, we have explored the moon and well beyond, we are looking for life

within the cosmos and our intellect looks to have no rival within the cosmos. Before I can go

further, maybe we need to consider a rather important factor we humans are missing.

Could both Nature and Mankind be a co-conspirator in Environmental Global Climate Change & Do we really need to

ask this question?INDEED YES WE DO!

The greater issue we face is How Are We Going To Fix It!

We can collectively finalize a plan that will involve every living species on the planet to thrive in a harmonious living where everything is preserved, every thing is shared, and

every thing prospers, not just the few.

It would have to be a new and bold plan exploring life here first so as we explore life elsewhere we have a common

respect for their way of life as we do ours.

We can do this! We are a species that can respect all factors, all species, Plans, and animals for the greater of

biodiversity and not just for human diversity; therefore, at the same time thrive as a collective biodiverse, sustainable

planet. Just a pep talk or are we capable to do this?

Toxic air pollution, soot, and the fog of death is what we are doing to our self and our fellow living species here on earth. Our kind has multiplied to a point that one day nature will change if we don’t secure this challenge first before we

reach the threshold of our carrying capacity, and therefore; sustainability is just a word given no credence or

importance, nevertheless, the meaning is what holds the key within the ethical and honorable value we humans want to leave as our legacy of humanity and the what is important

within the historical record. Do we really want to do this to our world and ourselves?

This is a place that once was a serene planet of hope and one glorious morning it gave light to the beauty of this

Planet, it life, and its moment in time and history that has a story of gloom that was avertable.

The bright magnificent colors and refreshing wetness of its water that illustrates the beauty of

our oceans at sunrise and sunset

The tree in its elegance as we peer into the dimensional art of its beauty over a

sprawling meadow and distant sunset

The beauty of Nature is a great gift that Nature gave us to revel in its magnificent splendor and diversity of life

within its biocosmc word of perhaps many other worlds

The splendor of that which is still here and thriving but perhaps slipping further into ruin

The splendor of that which was has been replaced with urban sprawl and once majestic meadows filled with trees, and the beauty of a meadows

sunset is in trade for highways of asphalt and concrete and hydrocarbon for clean breathable air and the smell of a spring rain

The splendor of that which was has been replaced with death to our wildlife, rivers,

and streams once filled with abundant living life

The splendor of that which was is now the excrement of that which is. A shameful

example to an existence that can have so much hope and continued beauty!

We have explored the facts of nature and followed mankind through over 2000 years of human evolution to find a planet that is challenged with over population, energy necessities that overwhelm resources, and a realism that all things do not last for ever, especially if the collective

ability of a species over run a carrying capacity and is unable to sustain the fruits of life.

All of us are a part of a larger plan, we are all the stewards of our planet. God saw a plan, he wrote it with a strong conviction that humans could

command and control his world so God could watch his children prosper, grow, and live together in a harmonious collective spirit that exemplifies

the meaning of life and the actual co-existence with all living things. Nature is special, its mechanism is complex and collectively dependant on the ability of that astonishing instrument called life to function within the

rules of the physical properties that were decided billions of years ago. Until mankind can reach the pinnacle of comprehension and execution to these rules we may find our self left to a moment in time where time ran

out.

The clock it ticking!

Do you remember me, I 'am Earth, a 6.5 billion year old planet just barley getting started.I’m a one of a kind planet drifting in the cold expanse of a galaxy called the milky way still

being cared for by a species that is but only a moment in existence. I call out to my brothers and sisters of the cosmos, are you there? I feel that my care takers need some help, they are a runaway species of great intellect heading for a destructive end. They

need to find the answer to life, nature, and a collectively prosperous existence. can you help me!

Reference Material

Cunningham, M., & Cunningham, W. P. (2009) Principles of Science. Custom book for Ashford: SCI 207. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Primis Custom Publishing.

Claussen, E. Arroyo-Cochran, V. & Davis, D. P. (2001). Science, Strategies, & Solutions. Climate change.

Arlington, VA: The Pew Center on Climate Change.

Gore, A. (2006). An inconvenient truth. The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and

What We Can Do About It. New York, NY: Rodale Publishing.

Kaufman, R. K. & Cleveland, C. J. (2006). Environmental Science. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

Primis Custom Publishing.

The History and Science Channel “Little Ice Age, The Big Chill” aired Friday, November 6, 2010.