The Global Climate; An Apocalyptic Catastrophe Waiting to Rage

The greatest and most challenging problem that humans have faced as yet has gone unsolved so far. The world's refusal to unite, even to accept the crisis, and tackle the problem together, has hindered the attempts of any one nation trying to restore balance.
And now it has spiralled out of control. Too late to annul the causes and minimise the effects of global warming. The full might of environmental imbalance may descend upon us in the next 20 years. Glaciers will melt, countries will flood, deserts will grow vast-spreading out to beyond the deserts and savannahs, ecosystems will wither, habitats will be lost and humans may even cease to exist. The irony, of course, is that we have caused the problem that is gearing up to wipe us out. We were the ones who released thousands of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each day, we were the ones who cut down and burnt three thousand acres of trees and vegetation, a day, and we were the ones who ignored all the hallmark signs, and warnings from experts, and carried on. Carried on, that is, until recently.
Now, the greenhouse effect has caused global warming on such a scale that, in 2003, the first Eskimos had to migrate south because their homes had melted into the sea. This, combined with quickly rising temperatures, strange rainfall patterns and a 16 per cent increase in the number of people contracting skin cancers has forced governments to take serious precautionary actions. That is most governments; America has remained unsurprisingly aloof, and they are, unfortunately, the world's number one polluter. In fact they run away with the award, with China, Russia and Canada (second, third and fourth respectively) combined, don't output as many greenhouse gases!
The British Government, similar to many other European Governments has signed up to the Kyoto Protocol (and more importantly, but less famously has cemented the Montreal Agreement, this year), has increased investment in renewable resources as an alternative fuel, subsidised clean energies and has imposed the use of filters on power stations. The effect? Global temperatures have risen faster than ever.
At first this startling observation baffled scientists, and then it became downright infuriating. The explanation; global dimming.
Global dimming is the theory that as more pollutants and aerosols are released into the atmosphere the suns intensity will be reduced, so negating the temperature rises caused by global warming.
The theory gathered substance when experiments showed in the Maldives, evaporation was lowest in areas where the prevailing wind came from India, or, in other words, where soot pollution, and other light reflectors, caused light pollution.
Historical archives kept up the momentum of the theory as they showed evaporation had fallen by one-hundred millilitres over the last thirty years.
The clinching, and scariest piece of evidence came from 9/11. A study compared the temperatures before and during the three day plane grounding. The results were drastic. On average the temperature range (the high during the day and low during the night) increased by almost three degrees! Global dimming is real and serious. In fact, both global dimming and warming are more real and serious than we have ever before appreciated.
What happened during the plane grounding? Global warming and dimming are precariously balanced, locked in a titanic struggle as opposing processes. When global dimming was ever so slightly weakened, by the reduction in fumes released by planes, global warming, which chiefly relies on the greenhouse effect, rocketed up.
So, just try and comprehend; if in just three days of no air traffic in America the temperature change is three degrees (quite enormous), just imagine the extremes that would result if power stations, cars and planes were halted for longer. Fourteen, fifteen even sixteen degree rises? Substantial enough to push humans to the limit.
But we don't want to get cooler either. If global dimming gains an edge the consequences will be just as severe; famine, flooding, disease, mass migration, to name but a few.
When Britain, and other European countries, applied filters to power stations the reduction in strength of global dimming allowed global warming to push up temperatures. Scientists now admit they seriously underestimated the sensitivity of the earth, and now claim the only way to save the earth as we know it in the long run would be to gradually cut back on both greenhouse gas emissions and soot and particle pollutions in equal measures.
Whether governments and nations listen however, is another matter.
But, if recent events have illustrated nothing else, it is that nature finds a way to bite back; we can't carry on tipping waste into what is, now more obviously than ever, a finite, delicate earth. We will pay an unforgiving, heavy price for our uncontrolled selfishness and blind ignorance unless we do something significant now.
Pessimistic? No! Look on the bright side; scientists have been wrong before, they could be wrong again, who knows?

Author: Ben Storrs

Manchester iJourno group