After two general education science courses at JMU I have become convinced that, we really have to start paying attention to the environment. How come Washington hasn't?
In the late 19th century, the idea that the burning of fossil fuels could change the climate of our planet was introduced with some evidence. Furthermore, earlier scientists tested these claims and found convincing results. Skip ahead one hundred years, and the idea of the Greenhouse Effect and the role of carbon dioxide become close to scientific law. The greenhouse effect refers to the idea that greenhouse gases in our atmosphere absorb heat from the Sun to keep the Earth warm in the horrible coldness of space, and thereby allow life itself to exist.
By the 1990s, scientists in the age of computers were able to accurately show that the Earth was, in fact, warming due to greenhouse gases and that human beings were directly related to the trend. In present times, evidence for global warming has become even more precise and even the United Nations' scientific body (the IPCC) has shown the world that it is real.
And, now, it is 2015 and we know that aerosols have depleted massive amounts of ozone -- nature's sunscreen -- in the atmosphere. We know that carbon dioxide emissions, from just about everything with an engine, have significantly increased the carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere, causing substantial warming. We know that the cutting of trees (carbon dioxide consumers) increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. And worst of all, we know that the effect we have had, has created a positive feedback loop, in which the warming of Earth melts ice to water, which absorbs more heat, and then melts more ice, which absorbs more heat. The Earth is definitely getting warmer.
Why are we are acting as if global warming -- or the more politically correct term: global climate change -- was just discovered? Politicians in Washington are not arguing about the causes of global warming, but rather, are still arguing about whether it exists. How can politicians claim global climate change doesn't exist when people who have studied the topic their entire careers claim that it does? There is clearly something wrong when undergraduates at college understand the concept, and graduates of Ivy League universities with doctorates in fancy fields cannot seem to grasp the apparent complexity of global warming.
But, truthfully, they do understand it. With the resources they have, they probably understand it better than most of us. However, when money gets thrown into the equation, it always wins out. If the world really wanted to reverse the effect they have had on the Earth's climate, we would pretty much have to say goodbye to our entire economy. But that doesn't mean we can't combat it.
Green energy, or cleaner energy, is the key and should be at the top of our agenda. Making the switch will solve countless political and economic problems, allowing us to focus on other important things that we have neglected. With green energy, we don't need oil anymore. Without oil, we don't have to fight trillion dollar wars in the Middle East. With green energy we don't burn nearly as many fossil fuels and, therefore, add less carbon dioxide and other potent greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. With green energy, we don't need to burn coal to make electricity, which is a huge contributor to carbon emissions. With green energy, we keep our planet healthy for future generations.
It is our generation that needs to step up and make changes. This is not some hippie debate to make the world cleaner. It is real, and politically and socially relevant. With warming, we will see more extreme weather patterns, some that we have already seen -- drought in California, insane hurricanes, sea level rise consuming islands.
We only have one planet.
