It has been a pet peeve of mine that ever since the debate began about the potential catastrophic effects of excessive amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, people have dubbed the problem with the misleading misnomer of “Global Warming”.
While we shiver through another -20°C day, you would be hard pressed to find anyone who feels at this stage of the year that a little planetary warming would be a bad thing. With the exception of those that really enjoy snowmobiling and ice-fishing, a shorter winter would probably be seen as a good thing by many.
I have also heard the argument that global warming will be beneficial to Canada since it will open much more land to agriculture since only a small part of this country has temperatures warm enough to sustain a solid growing season for most crops. Indeed, if we really were lucky, we may be able to start growing our own oranges and bananas and could avoid costly imports from other countries.
This is what makes me cringe and why I take great pains in every conversation I have to correct the terminology and replace the term “global warming” with “climate change”, a more accurate descriptor of what is really happening.
We are now starting to understand what this problem will really mean to our world.
What we are seeing is severely altered weather patterns that have catastrophic results. The problem isn’t that the world is experiencing a drought, floods or storms at an increased level. The problem is that the world is experiencing weather patterns that have never been seen before at the location where they are occurring.
Cities that have ample rainfall are suffering from extended droughts and wildfires while at the same time areas that are used to a dry season are instead experiencing record floods. Traditionally temperate regions are being hammered by snowstorms while the Arctic and Antarctica experience their warmest years on record.
Storms are increasing in intensity and, although there may be regions that are experiencing more hospitable growing seasons, the fact that the soil is not rich enough to support the sustained growth is resulting in massive crop failures and dire warnings about global food production.
At the same time, the changing climate is allowing non-native species to gain a foothold in areas where they were previously never able to survive. This is resulting in epidemics of invasive insects and animals taking over from native flora and fauna and spreading diseases that the local wildlife (and in many cases the local people) are not able to defend against.
For years scientists have been warning that this was coming but all too often their calls fell on deaf ears. Our own country’s record on climate change is abysmal to say the least.
Now, all the sages are proving to be correct and any idealistic thoughts about the benefits of slight “global warming” have been replaced by the harsh reality of “climate change”.
There is nothing pleasant about it.
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