So, it's Blog Action Day, and the subject this year is Climate Change. Gather round children, and pay attention because we're going to learn all about how your activities today impact on the world tomorrow.......
Blah.
Blah,
Blah.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
WAKE UP!
Now, I know, I know. Climate change is a common subject nowadays. We're all hearing stories of how in fifty years, one hundred years time, our world may be unrecognisable. And whilst that sends shivers down the spine, many of us won't be here in 50 years time, and unless the NHS improves it's performance considerably, none of us will be here in 100 years time. (Not that I would want to be, unless of course I got the chance to seriously upgrade my body, but that's a whole other post...).
But for those of you who didn't catch the news this morning, we haven't got 100 years before this starts to happen. We probably haven't even got 50 years. We might not even have 20. The Catlin Arctic Survey Team spent this summer measuring the thickness of the ice at the top of the world, and based on their estimates:
"In just ten years or so 80-85 per cent of the Arctic Ocean will be ice free, and within twenty years we'll have completely lost the summer ice."
“Sea ice is a critical part of Earth’s climate system and the loss of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is happening decades ahead of most predictions. We cannot predict all of the effects of this ice loss, but scientists foresee severe disruption to the natural world on both a local and a global scale.”
So what? you might ask. Why should that matter to me? I mean, it's a shame about the polar bears and all that but...
I am not an expert. I don't have the answers to how we can stop this. I mean, I turn off lights, I recycle, I try not to leave the tv on standby (she says, rushing off to the tv and guilty switching it off). And it's hard to get too worried about it when for the moment it appears that there is no consensus on what happens next, should there suddenly be an ocean at the top of the world instead of a vast area of ice reflecting enough of the sun's rays back into space to prevent it from getting uncomfortably hot in here. Apart from the fact that it is not going to be good news...
But it does seem to me that we should be paying just a little bit more attention to all this. If we want our childrens' and subsequent generations lives to bear any relation to our own, that is.
Just a thought.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn the Netherlands our dikes are not high enough to hold back the water that comes free from the melting of the ice cap that will cause the sea level to rise and since a lot of our country is below sea level, we are in deep doo-doo.
ReplyDeletei have a strong belief that we are doomed. but some men will make a lot of money out of it.
ReplyDeleteAh...and our Professor of Glaciology was so badly heckled when she came to give a talk!
ReplyDeleteI don't suppose our herd of Aberdeen Angus is helping....and no more onion soup for you Potty!!!
And yet Irene, I've read at least one climate change expert who thinks that you guys above all others will be OK - because you have the know-how on building what will be needed.
ReplyDeleteGrit, you can be sure of that.
Frog, excellent point. Yet another reason to spare us all the torture!
Its scary to think of the impact that the pole melting will have on our climate, particurly the Atlantic Drift.
ReplyDeletePS. There is an award for you at my blog. x
And trading carbon emissions is not going to do anything to help the planet although it will make a select group of exceedingly rich people and corporations even richer! If all the money spent on bloody conferences, consultants and reports went towards developing alternative forms of energy we wouldn't be in this mess. But what do I know, I'm not a politician!
ReplyDeleteWoMummy, thanks! Will be over to collect shortly...
ReplyDeleteSharon, you're so right. Maybe WE should become carbon traders...?