The Climate Crisis
I frequently make Climate Crisis presentations to school groups and community organizations. If you are interested in more information or scheduling a presentation please use the CONTACT PAGE.
I recommend that you read the latest book review I have posted, about, "The Heat Will Kill You First"
From the NASA website (www.nasa.gov)
The Climate Events of 2020 Show How Excess Heat is Expressed on Earth
What does the future hold?
This year we experienced firsthand the ways that more heat is expressed on our planet. The large wildfires, intense hurricanes, and ice loss we saw in 2020 are direct consequences of human-induced climate change. And they're projected to continue and escalate into the next decade - especially if human-induced greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate.
"This isn't the new normal," said Schmidt. "This is a precursor of more to come."
To help us understand and prepare for our planet's future, NASA observes and learns about Earth from space. By collecting a variety of data, NASA scientists are able to better understand how Earth operates as a system and create models to predict what the next decades will bring, providing information that helps decision makers around the world.
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Recent articles in The Gainesville Times have reported details about plans for road improvements throughout Hall County, as well as the statistic that the Hall county population "cracks 200,000." There certainly is a crack, and it will grow larger and become threatening as a result of the plans our county leaders are making. You have power and each of you can work to keep the crack from becoming threatening.
To use your power you must commit to making some tradeoffs. You must be willing to be a bit less comfortable day to day. The long-range tradeoff is being much more comfortable with the environment in which you will live.
Each of us contributes daily to the carbon dioxide that is dumped into our atmosphere, using it as a sewer. Calculate for the entire planet, and you will find that we dump the equivalent of the weight of more than a thousand 737 jets per hour of carbon dioxide each day.
Anyone who thinks this amount of carbon dioxide dumped into our atmosphere every day will not have harmful effects is thinking poorly. Imagine if, instead of being a transparent gas, carbon dioxide were an orange gas. The problem is that carbon dioxide is not transparent to infrared radiation, also known as heat energy. The resulting heat trapped by the carbon dioxide we increasingly add to the atmosphere each day has been doing damage to our environment for a long time. This heating was predicted by a renowned chemist in 1896.
If our civilization is to remain as vibrant and dynamic as it is now, the effect of the increasing amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere must be addressed. Part of your power involves how much gasoline you burn. When you drive your vehicle and burn 1 gallon of gasoline you dump 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
You have the power to reduce the carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere. Reduce the gasoline you burn each week from 25 gallons to 15 gallons and you will add 200 pounds less carbon dioxide to our atmosphere each week.
Some 66% of the electricity in Georgia is produced by coal-fired and natural gas-fired power plants. Reducing the amount of electricity you use by 10% will significantly reduce the carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere.
If the leaders we have elected to make decisions about things that affect the future of our civilization refuse to change we must elect leaders who are willing to change in response to the evidence. The evidence indicates that we must change to avoid devastating challenges that will alter our civilization. Your power gives you the ability to choose leaders who are willing to change.
Climate change is a nonpartisan issue. Together, we all face the challenges of climate change. For the sake of our children and grandchildren, we must act together to address those challenges.