We Need Less Drama & More Data

"Artic is Screaming" read the headline in my local paper today. The quote from Mark Serreze, a senior scientist at NSIDC, seems a little melodramatic doesn’t it?

Don’t get me wrong, I believe that we are experiencing Global Warming.

Today’s article mentioned one of the effects being changed winter weather in the Southeast. Well we’re having that, it’s going to be over 70 today and setting records for high temps for a few days in a row. Indeed the severe drought we are experiencing may be due in part to Global Warming also.

I look for the 5 "Ws" and the"How" in a news article. In the one today the "Who" is Mark Serreze (scientist and Ice expert), the "What" is Arctic Ice Melt, the "When" is now (including data back to 2005), the "Where" is Greenland. It’s the "WHY" and "HOW"; that go unanswered.

A little of the "HOW" is known to me from previous reading. Researchers learned in the last year or so about a different way in which Glacial Ice melted; from the bottom up as well as the top down. This difference sped up the melting many times and pushed estimates of total ice loss into our life time. 

So now we get to the "WHY". This is the 800 lb Gorilla in the corner. After years of denial that there really was a problem, even our President of Abjuration; G.W Bush, admits to Global Warming, though he's no closer to doing anything about it today than he was 7 years ago.

I have heard Carbon Emissions,(both monoxide and dioxide), Population Growth, Cow Flatulence, Too many Cars, Deforestation, Holes in the Ozone Layer, the shifting of Earth’s Magnetic Fields, and Long Term Weather Cycles, offered as causes of Global Warming. Maybe it’s a combination of all of them and some others as well.

Who on this planet right now really knows? And if they do; will they please come forward and explain it to us, especially the dumbheads we elect to run our governments, so we can do something about it! Because I’m one of those folks who think we ought to face our problems and work to fix them. It would be nice to know what to do.

So here’s my suggestion, the governments and scientist represented at the "Bali" conference going on now should give us the goods. We need credible answers to the "Why" & "How" and then guidance on what do we do now. Perhaps a new administration here in the US will actually listen and do something. Let’s hope!

My hope is that it’s not too late all ready.