Why Even Bother?

Another year has past, another Spring is coming to the Northern Hemisphere and fall to the Southern, another Earth Day, and another climate report from the UN released. So the world takes a large sigh of ignorance at yet another report, the deniers make up excuses out of thin air, and most other folks bury their heads in the ground. Still more will point to China and exclaim about how it's now all their faults for wanting to live like those in the West. Politicians will make pledges that later they will push off and speeches that result in nothing. In the end, really, it's all a front and little to nothing will be done about it. So why does anyone bother to talk about the incoming problems? Because out there someone will listen and maybe, at the least, they can be aware of the problems coming down the line. If you really don't care, or want to believe it's all some conspiracy to keep you from doing whatever you please, then stop reading this essay.

For those that don't know, the United Nations climate change panel recently leaked a report written by 772 climate scientists from 70 countries. In it they laid out the current changes being experienced in the climate and the consequences that these changes will have in the next eighty or so years. These changes include the unprecedented rise in global temperature compared to Earth's history, the rise in sea levels, increased droughts, and the acidification of the ocean. Mostly, the report dealt with the idea of surviving these changes as with the time lag involved, it's too late to stop any of them.

The big, noticeable hit to everyone will be the effects upon our food supplies. In the last couple of years we've seen two major areas affected by droughts and another by a surprise, early winter storm. This has laid waste to the beef herds in the United States and is reflected in the price of beef at the store. These same droughts have torn up the nations supplies of hay and corn, two major feed sources for meat and dairy animals. It's not alarmist, it's fact, I talked to my hay supplier this month who informed me he's had calls from several states away looking to send a semi his way in hopes of getting enough hay to last until the grasses hopefully grow. That's unusual as it's not very cost effective to transport hay that long of a distance. You will see that affect the price of meat later on.

The report states that the changes in climate have already cut production of vital cereal grains by 10% and that the cuts will become more serious in time as even GMOs will not be able to keep up with the change in climate along with insects that are becoming resistant to the current GMO alterations. A major drought and water restrictions in South California is putting a hurt on the nation's food supplies as a large amount of our dairy and vegetables are grown in that once fertile land.

NOAA reports that sea levels have risen 1-2.5mm a year since 1900 but since 1992 have been going up 3mm a year or 0.12 inches a year. Current predictions place sea levels to rise 10 to 32 inches or 26 to 82cm over the next few decades. Considering that the majority of the worlds populations already lives on the coastline, it will displace a large number of people and destroy a large amount of the buildings and property on the coast. Already people have lost significant chunks of land, one family in Louisiana reports having lost upwards of 20 acres of land due to sea levels rising.

The oceans act as a carbon dioxide sink, absorbing large amounts of the gas through the movement of the water. The CO2 then reacts with H20 to form H2CO3 or carbonic acid. It's this reaction that has caused the pH levels of the ocean to become 25% more acidic since the start of the Industrial Revolution. This acid eats away at calcium deposits, normally found in the coral reefs and in the shells of various shellfish like oysters and clams. Even if you don't eat those in particular, they are a base food for many other species of fish.

Currently there are many people scrambling to try to cover up and dilute this report as much as possible. Governments are trying to stuff the report full of "what ifs" posing that the report should answer what would happen if they actually enforced mandatory greenhouse gas laws. Unfortunately, the reality is that these laws are often skirted or otherwise mitigated by other laws. This means that the reality is we probably won't see enough of a reduction put in place via legislature to make enough of a difference to stop these events. They will ignore anyone who says otherwise, even someone as prominent as Jim Yong Kim, the head of the World Bank, who states that on the current path there will be conflicts within the next decade over food and water sources.

Everything listed above is already happening, there is actual proof of it happening and the events have been measured and recorded. There is no denying that. Instead, it means that it is time to take a good, hard look at what is coming down the pike and to be ready to deal with the consequences.