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It's everywhere, talk of going green, "global warming" and this thing it causes, "climate change", but how much do you really know about it?
Let's start with Gaia, the theory that is now widely accepted and is described as the earth as: "The Gaia Theory posits that the organic and inorganic components of Planet Earth have evolved together as a single living, self-regulating system. It suggests that this living system has automatically controlled global temperature, atmospheric content, ocean salinity, and other factors, that maintains its own habitability." [Source]
With strong evidence of past hot and cold periods during Earth's lifetime, a natural cycle has been deducted. After collision with an asteroid that is believed to have wiped out the then dominant species, dinosaurs, the Earth was still in a hot state, hence, an ice age followed, on a geological timeline, fairly soon afterward. This was Gaia re-adjusting, so much that glaciation extended further south than Canada's modern border and into northern Europe. As diversity increased in the cool period almost to the point of destabilization - likely through population - Gaia readjusted again to bring about the diversity of the experienced until at least the 1800's.
Since the industrialization of the current M.E.D.C's (more economically developed countries) and the invention of the combustion engine and 'discovery' of electricity we have been consuming fossil fuels at a near exponential rate as our technology has become more sophisticated.
This is a problem for Gaia as she was already trying to balance the warm period, but with the release of greenhouse gases, so called because they trap and re-radiate heat, the natural balance has been upset. Of course, as the majority of greenhouse gases now come from unnatural sources.
Considering the amount of geological time it takes Gaia to adjust, and the fact that the average global temperature has increased by 1F in the last one hundred years, and by 4F in some regions, the vast majority of scientists now accept that climate change, as a result of global warming, is mainly caused by humans.
Global warming causes climate change purely due the sensitivity of the world's climate to changes in temperature, and not only climate, but ocean current's too. Ocean currents determine how warm or cool parts of the world are, for example, if the Gulf Stream were to change course and move south toward Spain, the UK, along with north-western Europe would become as cold as parts Greenland for a considerable amount of the year.
North Eastern Europe would experience winters similar to those in Siberia currently, if it were to move further north, the opposite would happen and British tourists would be less likely to holiday in southern Spain!
Ocean currents can affect weather patterns to an extent too, but not as much as the inland temperatures. Weather patterns will change independently, as they constantly too, but the frequency of extreme weather would increase. A warmer summer in the Caribbean would likely result in a more severe hurricane season, which has been seen recently, we all know where.
When the atmospheric composition changes, there will likely be effects. Carbon dioxide is now at levels of 390 parts per million, when in 1970 the levels were close to 330 parts per million, and in 1880 levels were around 290 ppm. Oh, and, in the last 800,000 years, the CO2 concentration has never gone above 310 parts per million (see below)
Such a big change in a very short of amount of geological time is likely to have many consequences.
These continually accelerating changes are why our world leaders need to leave Copenhagen having signed an ambitious, fair and binding climate agreement, with all countries involved, especially the U.S., China and Canada. For too long we have sat back and denied, debated and been sheepish when it comes to policy. This December could be the last chance our world leaders have to collectively combat climate change. If you want to let them know you want the same, I suggest you explore the TckTckTck campaign, and sign your name along with 1.93 million other citizens worldwide who have done so already. Together we can make a lot of noise.
Thank you for reading!
