THE EFFECTS OF GLOBAL WARMING WILL INCREASINGLY INTRUDE INTO OUR LIVES.  THESE ARE THE BASIC ANTICIPATED EFFECTS:     

1. LOSS OF CROPLAND:  AREAS CURRENTLY PRODUCTIVE FOR CROPS MAY BECOME UNTENABLE;  THE AMERICAN MIDWEST MAY BE ESPECIALLY VULNERABLE. CROPLANDS IN THE NORTH WILL LACK THE INFRASTRUCTURE THAT DECADES OF DEVELOPMENT HAVE BROUGHT TO OUR EXISTING FARMLANDS: EQUIPMENT DEALERS, GRAIN SILOS, RAILROADS WILL TAKE GENERATIONS TO DEVELOP.

LIKEWISE 'DESERTIFICATION' OF CURRENTLY DRY AREAS WILL MAKE ENORMOUS TRACTS OF MARGINALLY HABITABLE LAND UNINHABITABLE. 

2. POLAR MELTOFF AND FLOODING OF COASTLINES:  MELTING OF HUGE AREAS OF POLAR, GREENLAND, AND ANTACTIC ICE WILL THREATEN THE WORLD'S COASTLINES. LOW LYING AREAS AROUND THE WORLD MAY FLOOD FROM THE RISE OF THE OCEANS.  FLORIDA, NEW ORLEANS, BANGLADESH, DENMARK MAY BECOME MOSTLY SUBMERGED. 

3. REFUGEES AND POLITICAL UNREST:  A NEW ERA OF CRITICAL POPULATION SHIFTS AND REFUGEE PROBLEMS WILL RESULT FROM THE FORCED EVACUATION FROM UNINHABITABLE AREAS.

4.  RISE IN TROPICAL DISEASES:  AFFLICTIONS SUCH AS MALARIA, YELLOW FEVER, DENGUE OR PARISITISMS MAY BECOME COMMON IN FORMERLY TEMPERATE AREAS.

5. WEATHER: EXPECTED INCREASES IN HURRICANES AND TORNADOES, DROUGHTS, FLOODS AND EVEN WINTER STORMS MAY AFFECT MILLIONS ON EVERY CONTINENT.

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EVERY YEAR FOR DECADES, SCIENTISTS HAVE DOCUMENTED THAT THE LEVELS OF CO2 IN OUR ATMOSPHERE ARE INCREASING. THIS ACTS AS A HEAT TRAP, OR "GREENHOUSE GAS" WHICH RESULTS IN CHANGES TO OUR CLIMATE.

THE PREINDUSTRIAL LEVEL OF CO2 WAS 280 PARTS PER MILLION (PPM) FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS.

THE LEVEL OF CO2 IN OUR ATMOSPHERE IS NOW 392 PPM.

THE TIPPING POINT: POSITIVE FEEDBACK LOOPS

A positive feedback is a mechanism that amplifies its own effect.  Climatologists are concerned that positive feedback loops could result in runaway release of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, resulting in catastrophic climate change.  Here are some important positive feedback loops:

1.  The Albedo effect:  When sunlight strikes snow or ice, most of the energy is reflected back into space. But when the polar snow and ice fields melt, the sunlight striking the same area is mostly absorbed by ground or sea water, thus much more solar energy is absorbed by the earth-- resulting in positive feedback.

2.  The Boreal effect:  As the northern forests suffer from continued degradation from climate change effects such as Pine Bark Beetle infestations and tree dieoffs, the resulting decay and wildfires increase the release of CO2.

3. The Permafrost effect:  As the artic permafrost continues to melt, uncalculably enormous areas of frozen tundra and peat are exposed to decay with resultant release of carbon dioxide-- perhaps nearly

two trillion tons of CO2.

4.  Methane Hydrates:  Deep under the polar oceans, methane is bound in an unstable chemical bond with water under high pressure and low temperatures. 

These are called methane hydrates or clathrates.  When the temperatures warm, incredible amounts of methane will be released from these deposits. Methane is a greenhouse gas some 25 times more potent than CO2.

5.  Ocean acidification: As the atmospheric CO2 increases, the amount of CO2 in the oceans causes a drop in oceanic pH. Now oceanic organisms find it more difficult to create carbonates to build corals and chalk formations. The enormous sink of carbon found in oceanic carbonates will no longer be an available  route of sequestration for carbon dioxide, and could conceivably even reverse into a disasterous positive feedback loop releasing even more CO2. This phenomenon could cause the extinction of numerous microscopic shell-forming creatures; these oceanic foraminifera represent the most basic level of the oceanic food chain.

6. The Human factor:  As climate change brings on adverse weather including unprecedented heat waves, humans turn to the power grid to run air conditioning for homes and buildings. The power for these increased climate control requirements is supplied by fossil fuels in 90% of the world, resulting in more CO2 release.

     "CLEAN" COAL??? NOT VERY LIKELY!

WITH CONSTANT MEDIA PROPAGANDA AND HYPE CONFRONTING US EVERY DAY, IT'S HARD TO REMEMBER THAT "CLEAN COAL" IS LARGELY FANTASY. NO EXISTING COAL SEQUESTRATION PLANTS ARE CURRENTLY PRACTICAL IN OPERATION-- EVEN THE PROTOTYPE PLANTS SACRIFICE A HUGE PORTION OF THE ENERGY DERIVED FROM THE COAL TO INJECT THE CO2 DEEP UNDERGROUND INTO (HOPEFULLY!) 'SAFE' GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS.

AND COAL IS BASICALLY AN ENVIRONMENTALLY UNFRIENDLY FUEL. IF YOU REMEMBER YOUR HIGH SCHOOL CHEMISTRY, WE CAN DO SOME MATH:

Anthracite coal is virtually all carbon, with just a few per cent hydrogen and nitrogen atoms thrown in. So a ton of coal is virtually a ton of carbon, and we're gonna burn it to CO2-- right?

Well, carbon has an atomic number of 12, and oxygen has an A.N. of 16. So each atom of carbon will oxidize to a molecule of carbon dioxide, or CO2, with a molecular weight of ??--that's right-- 44!  Divide each carbon weight  (12) into each CO2 weight--that's 12 into 44, and you'll see that each ton of coal burns to about 3.66 TONS OF CO2!!!

Let's take another example: Methane, or CH4-- an easy formula to work with and very similar to natural gas.  Well, each Methane molecule will burn to one CO2 and two water (H2O) molecules. So dividing the weight of methane (16) into the weight of the resultant CO2 (44) will show that each ton of methane burned will give 2.75 tons of carbon dioxide-- a 33% improvement in the production of Carbon Dioxide!!

OF COURSE, Solar and Wind, and Nuclear energy sources of power produce essentially NO carbon dioxide into the atmosphere!!

                AN ENVIRONMENTALIST'S READING LIST 

 An Inconvenient Truth  The classic wake-up call by former Vice President Al Gore (2006). Mercilessly critiqued and dissected by the political right and climate deniers, it still presents one of the most cogent and moving portrayals of man's destruction of the climate to date.

Field Notes from a Catastrophe: by Elizabeth Kolbert  (2006). An easily read account of the efforts of climate scientists to understand the changes affecting all of us, with insightful tales that include  the emotional and psychic toll taken by scientists who are our front line environmental warriors for our changing planet.

Six Degrees: Our future on a Hotter Planet  by Mark Lynas (2008). A frightening depiction of the world climate scientists fear our children may inherit from us, from the current 2 degrees Centigrade warming to the very real dangers of a four degree world and the catastrophic changes that a five or six degree Earth would bring to us.

Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity by James Hansen (2010). This is the in-depth book by the climatologist who first testified to Congress about the dangers of Global Warming. A relatively hard read, Hansen's book covers not only the science as it has matured over the past 30 years, but also gives a historical perspective and an in-depth account of the political obstacles and obstruction to the challenges of Global Climate Change.

Down to the Wire by David Orr (2009). By the distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics of Oberlin College and a James Marsh Professor at the University of Vermont.

Dr. Orr paints a frightening picture of the rapidly changing environment of our Earth and the far-

reaching implications for global climate change. 

Collapse by Jared Diamond.  Not a climate change book per se, this profound work by the Pulitzer Prize winning author is a sobering account of the numerous societies that determined their own extinction through lack of foresight, sheer stupidity, and the 'Tragedy of the Commons'.  Diamond's account of the collapse and extinction of the Pitcairn Island natives, who overharvested their largest trees until they could no longer build ocean-going canoes, is an especially dismal description of a dwindling band of peoples dying out on Pitcarin and Henderson islands, watching the ocean's horizon year after year in hope of re-establishing contact with the western islands.

The Revenge of Gaia  by James Lovelock  (2006) Is it already too late? Have we gone past the Tipping Point? A depressing and serious look at the climate situation from the iconic creator of the Gaia concept:  that Earth acts  collectively as a living being and can adjust it's own environment for the well being of Life. Now, the effects of humans only so recently even brought into the consciousness of our societal and political discourse seem destined to disrupt the balance of Life on our planet.  Lovelock seriously presents the evidence that climate change brought about by the last two centuries of human affairs has gathered such unstoppable inertia that the next thousand years will chonicle an unprecedented climate disaster.

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