Dear Editor,
There’s a lot to worry about in these trying times, so I can forgive you for not including climate change. Besides, political leaders and scientists will surely solve this inconvenient truth, right?
Wrong. They won’t because they can’t. It’s too late, baby, though we really did try to make it.
This is the hottest year ever recorded and the coolest year you’ll have for the rest of your life. Our fragile Earth will keep warming, and it doesn’t give a damn about us. Count on more virulent hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, droughts, searing heat, melting icebergs and glaciers, rising sea levels, ocean acidification, and massive wildfires. Oh, I almost forgot!—thawing and exploding tundra, pine tree beetles, dying coral reefs, starving polar bears, and...get the picture?
Anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change is a demonstrated fact, not some harebrained theory. The mostly irreversible damage will worsen partly because so many anti-science legislators—mainly Republicans—are running our country. It has become a partisan plank.
I try to be patient and understanding with climate skeptics, but I’ve had it with deniers and cynics.
Once there was a way. Back in the ’60s, we atmospheric scientists knew why our globe was warming and how we could control its effect, climate change. Anyone can understand it. We cause vast amounts of “greenhouse” gases, like carbon dioxide, to be emitted by burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) in sources like motor vehicles and power plants. These greenhouse gases trap the Earth’s heat so it can’t radiate back into space. So here we are with over 50 years of solid, confirming evidence, yet many malevolent politicians raise their ugly, incoherent heads and call it a hoax.
About 50 years ago, I naively thought nuclear power would save us from ourselves. Consider this: it’s taken Georgia Power 20 years and nearly $40 billion (not a misprint) to build just two nuclear reactors—that’s double the original cost estimate—and they’re seven years behind schedule. I worry that the managers who built those reactors might operate them. Can you guess who’s going to pay for these overruns?
Some atmospheric scientists believe we can still fix this. I am not one of them.
Duke Geddis, Athens