Positive Warming Feedback

A few days ago, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the time on their Doomsday Clock ahead by two minutes. It is now five minutes until zero hour (midnight). Their decision was made in light of the growing threats of nuclear proliferation and global warming.

It disheartens me to see so many people neglecting, even refusing to believe the issue of global warming. Unlike the threat of nuclear proliferation, which most people find easy to understand, global warming is often written off as an effect of El Nino or the North Atlantic Oscillation. Although these weather phenomena can be used to partially explain the warm winter weather this year, the fact remains that in the past year, we have found evidence in many places of global warming being a real force.

The scariest part about most of this evidence is that the odds are not in our favor. Melting ice caps that decrease the amount of sunlight reflected by the Earth, increasing temperatures and melting more ice. Boiling peat bogs that release thousands of tons of methane into the air each day. Deforestation. All of these things come together to form a massive positive feedback loop causing temperatures to go out of control. If these cycles are real, now is not the time to ignore global warming.

What annoys me the most about people denying the issue is that this denial can only be used as a reason not to change. The thing is that nobody is expecting everyone to make an overnight switch to alternative forms of energy; we all need to work together to find a suitable solution. Acknowledging global warming can only help us stay vigilant and prepare for problems in the future. Besides, it couldn't hurt to activate some measures to slow the growth of global warming. Some things, like turning off lights and setting the thermostat a few degrees lower in the winter, are simple to do. Other things, like biking to work or using public transportation, are lifestyle changes. For my part, I've started advocating the use of compact fluorescent bulbs at home. They last much longer and use 1/4 the energy of an incandescent light bulb, with no significant difference in lighting ability. Best of all, they end up saving you money.

Most of the things people do are done to secure a person's way of life. We work, we fight, we make choices each day to ensure the safety of our lives and the lives of our descendants. How, then, can we neglect such a large threat to our livelihood as global warming? Put another way: what use is there in fighting over land, money, and honor if Earth will soon become unlivable?