The climes they are a-changin'

We need to seriously address the very real problem of global warming and the resultant climate change.

Of the 195 nations in the world, 175 are of one accord regarding the Paris Climate Accords (4/11/2015) whose “central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius [3.6 degrees F] above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius [2.7 degrees F].”

There’s only one known way to do that: a major global decrease in the use of fossil fuels.

The most notable country not officially in accord is America. The Republican Party’s fossil fuel corporate sponsors have spent enormous sums of money on propaganda to convince us that global warming is a hoax, while knowing full-well the effects of fossil fuel use. For source, search on: “ BBC ExxonMobil: Oil giant predicted climate change in 1970s”

Here are some tangible, documented evidence that global warming is real, things that everyone really ought to know (if they don’t already).

1. Global warming is causing glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica to melt at accelerated rates, contributing to rising sea levels, threatening coastal cities and low-lying areas. This is true globally, not just in the U.S. For some island countries, such as those in the Caribbean, the threat is immediate and dire.

2. Warming of the oceans promotes ever more evaporation into the air. Also, warmer air is able to carry more water vapor, leading to more and more severe weather events, including flooding, mudslides, and tornadic wind storms. The extreme wet areas are counter-balanced somewhat by extremely dry areas with drought and wildfires.

3. There is a mass, global population migration away from the Equator to the cooler North as their environments become progressively unlivable. Plants and wild animals are also migrating as fast as they can.

The bottom line is that we, the U.S., should be leading the effort to combat global warming. We are the most capable of coordinating our efforts with those of the other 175 nations to achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Accords. We must not let the anti-science Republican Party continue to block our way forward on this effort.

John H Terrell