The Climate Change News

I broke my bicycle out and took a ride this afternoon in jeans and a hoodie. I was comfortable. In fact, by the time I had ridden a couple miles I had worked up a good healthy sweat. It is in the 50s today, January 9th, 2006, in Brooklyn, NY. Not just today either, all week it is supposed to be like this with it possibly getting warmer toward the end, with rain expected for Saturday.

I talked to my girlfriend in Maryland and she said it was in the 60s there. At the same time Britain and India are freezing. Is this evidence of climate change? I don't know. Maybe no one knows. Or maybe we have pretty solid suspicions but we really don't WANT to know. Maybe that is more accurate, we don't WANT to know.

Shirt sleeve weather
Photo taken 01/09/06 in Brooklyn, NY. by the Author

Freeze or bake or global paradise, which will it be? I suppose that Global Warming is the more scary of the two choices (Global Cooling being the other) that are housed under the umbrella of the term Climate Change.

But what of Global Cooling? I think that could be worse than warming. I say this based on the idea that releasing the CO2 into the atmosphere that is produced by burning fossil fuels could change the climate. If cold is the result then we will want more heat. More heat will require us to burn more fossil fuels. Burning more fossil fuels will release more CO2. More CO2 will make it get colder...and on and on....

Why wouldn't we want to know though? I mean if the climate of our world is being radically, perhaps permanently altered shouldn't we care? I guess that depends on whether or not we feel like we can reverse whatever change takes place. If we can then sure, let's get to work. If we can't...better to just ignore it and hope it goes away. Sound logic? No. Human nature? Yes.

Then there is the camp that says change is beneficial. OK, maybe. But that is a hell of a gamble to take on a maybe. Once again, if it isn't good news we really don't want to hear it. Being able to make people believe whatever you tell them is not necessarily the same thing as telling the truth. Maybe turning northern Canada and Siberia into beach resorts will NOT be good for the rest of the world.

What are some other potential effects of climate change? Growing seasons and precipitation patterns could change and this could negatively affect agriculture over vast areas. (No more food). If it was 30 degrees in July in North America and 130 degrees in Britain you could say there wasn't really climate change but crops would be just as devastated. Diseases could also find new hosts in new environments if such changes occur.

Maybe malaria, for example, will become a problem in the United States. Maybe new epidemics will run virtually unchecked in populations with little or no resistance to them. Ocean habitats too will change and the question is whether nature can adapt fast enough to allow we humans to maintain our present cushy lifestyle. I have no doubt that the Earth and nature will go on, the question is whether or not we will go on with them.

I guess this is the Artist's vision of a possible future in NYC

This is a closeup of the Statue Of Liberty portion of the above mural
Photos of a wall in Queens by the Author

Article Author: Mike Johnston

Covering mainstream music, the New York City indie rock scene and off-Broadway theater productions. Also articles on science, the ongoing effects of climate change, and alternative energy.

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