Thank you for publishing a lengthy, well written article regarding climate change and the psychological impact of watching it unfold (“Stressed out about climate change? Experts discuss ‘eco anxiety’ and tools to fight it,” Jan. 27). The author noted the stages of grief that one would go through losing a loved one if compared to the climate. If a person doesn’t experience this at a deep level, their understanding of climate change is limited. We stand at the abyss. There are mainstream projections of the Arctic being permanently ice-free within 12 years. The jet stream that the world’s industrial agriculture depends on for regular rainfall, could then be in a permanently “stuck” configuration or broken up completely. The temperature difference between the equator and the polar region(s) are what produce the jet stream. When, due to an ice-free arctic, this temperature difference disappears, we could see an alternating six months of drought or six months monsoon and the elimination of industrial agriculture.This right here was enough for me to completely break down when I understood its consequences in-depth. This is a near-term disaster and contributes to the eco-anxiety your prescient article describes.
Shanti Harris
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Weddings 2022.
It is difficult to understand how distorted a discussion of “climate change” can be. Let’s use a couple of the references in this “letter.” First, Al Gore predicted that the SUMMER polar ice cap would be gone by 2014. It’s not gone. It is still there, slightly reduced from its size in 2004 when Mr. Gore made the prediction.
Second, the temperature differential between the poles and the equator is not DETERMINED BY ice at the poles. Ice at the poles is determined by the incidence of sunlight at the poles vs. the equator, which CAUSES the poles to be colder than the equator…..that isn’t going away unless you believe the earth is literally flat.
Third, just for some reassurance, temperatures at the South Pole have been carefully monitored since 1957. This year, averaged over the entire “winter” there (our summer) it was almost 1/2 of a degree Centigrade COLDER than it has ever been before in that history.
The list of the absurd projections about climate change should be shortened by the fact that none of those predictions to date have actually occurred. Yes, the world has been warming slowly for 20,000 years, and yes, oceans are rising at something less than 1/8th of an inch per year. But the suggestion that you will be able to actually detect “climate change” in your daily life is completely unrealistic.
The lack of skepticism in those who fear impossible physical phenomena evidences not a crisis in our climate, but a crisis in our educational system.
Thank you Ms Harris for caring. Recent climate change is real and is man made. Mr Clovis Dad, your grabbing at straws to justify your beliefs is a very real disservice.
Einstein was wrong about United Field Theory. Does that mean he was wrong about everything? Al Gore might have been wrong about when the polar ice would melt, but it is melting at a alarming rate.
Ms. Harris says that the temperature differential between the poles and the equator is determinate to the strength of the jet stream. She say nothing about the solar radiation differential.
Mr Clovis Dad did you just not understand? The polar regions are warming much faster than the temperate regions of world. If it is true that the South Pole was cooler by 1/2 of a degree centigrade last year it is also true that Antarctica has warmed by 5 degrees F over the last 50 years. Please don’t cherry pick to mislead. If you are going to talk about the climate crisis being an educational problem, please educate yourself to the Milankovitch Cycles that determine determine the warming and glaciation periods that are the natural changes to our climate. We are at the beginning of a cooling phase yet the earth is warming……… What we are seeing now is undeniably man made.
Bob Rodger…….Los Osos Dad
The earth climates are always changing. Is human activity changing it? Slowing it? Accelerating it? Absolutely NOBODY can confirm any of those, regardless of a so-called “consensus”. How, exactly, did humans alter the Saharan forests, to be covered by endless sands? The glaciers that once covered North America, were they melted by early cavemen who just discovered fire, and developed giant Pizza ovens soon after? Explain to us, how industrial man, in the last 200 years, tossed more pollution in the air, than millions of years of volcanic activity and unchecked wildfires?
Look. Go to the beach. Have a Mojito. Take a drive into the countryside. Go dancing tonight. Enjoy a steak at Madonna Inn. Stick a wad of gum to the alley wall. Because NOTHING you, or I, or us do or will do or have done, will alter the climate.
You can debate if climate change is real or not, but either way the best path forward is to stop burning fossil fuels.
Petroleum is one of the greatest resources available on earth. It’s the base for many modern materials, like roads, and plastics, and medicines. Burning it is stupid.
Mr SLO Ride………There are people who have spent their lives scientifically studying how and why the climate has changed. Since industrialization the level of CO2 has increased 280 ppm to over 400ppm. There were volcanoes, and wildfires before industrialization, but the carbon cycle was in balance. How do you explain the increase in CO2? The information is there if you care to care. If you don’t, well just say so. In the end the climate really doesn’t care what you think.
Six months of drought and six(ish) months of rain used to be the norm in SLO. But in the last couple of years it has actually been more like one month of rain and eleven months of drought.