What is climate change and why should YOU care?
James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Space Center, and an adjunct professor at Columbia University, is the leading climatologist who brought "Climate Change" into our modern vernacular when he sounded the Greenhouse Gases alarm based on scientific study in the 1980s.
He testified at Congressional hearings, and began the slow climate change drum beat.
A slow beat to humanity's death or an awakening to new ways to power cars, computers, and homes?
We decide.
Change humanity's use of carbon, which creates greenhouse gases, Hansen tells us.
Stop putting CO2, Methane, and Aerosols into the atmosphere.
Stop, think, do. March forward.
Stop, educate others. March forward.
Stop and write your policy makers. March forward.
Today, Hansen is a crusader to stop old, dirty coal plants: a prime contributor to climate change, which is happening more rapidly than scientists originally believed.
Here's a piece Hansen wrote urging people in Massachusetts to speak out to stop the rich old boy's network of lobbyists who insist on continuing use of an old major polluting coal plant.
Surprising to me that this is an issue for those people, since Mass. took the EPA to court over climate change issues. Maybe those coal lobbyists are the reason.
Their coast line is already disappearing due to rising sea-levels.
What will earth look like in 50 years?
In addition to the usual suspects--CO2--there's methane from decomposing life under the ocean, that's rising into our atmosphere as ice sheets melt.
I wrote a post last year about the sardine population being destroyed in Monterey in the 1950s.
Well, it's happening elsewhere as well, and scientists in the know say that sardines eat decomposing plant and sea animal life, and without sardines around to eat 'em, decomposing life turns to methane, a greenhouse gas, supposedly more potent than CO2.
So fossil fuel and coal use, combined with methane, unchecked will lead to the destruction of the planet and life as we know it.
If I understand Hansen's data correctly, perhaps in decades, life as we know it will cease to exist, which means after you write your leaders to stop dirty coal plants, go enjoy your day.
And if you're a science buff, read Hansen's scientific paper:
Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?
Stumbling through the universe, to the beat of Hansen's drum, I go into the world. A dozen fragrant white roses and cluster of gardenias blossoming on my desk...the send off to...
Have a good day.
