Easy to Deny, Hard to Ignore

Thursday, a devastating storm with dust and then rain plus 130 km/hr winds hit western India.  This is six weeks before the monsoon season.  The worst flooding on record is taking place in the St. John river valley in New Brunswick.  Traditional weather patterns are being upset in most parts of the world.  But it’s not caused by climate change, because climate change is a myth.

It’s pretty easy to deny climate change.  The President of the United States says that not only is climate change a myth, but it is a hoax perpetrated by China. And who would doubt the President?  And didn’t hundreds of scientists sign something that said it was a myth? And of course, look at all the good that this mythical climate change is doing like opening up shipping in the Arctic.  And didn’t some places have colder than normal temperatures this past winter?  It’s probably all a cyclic climate issue like the ice age.  It will all get back to normal soon.  We really don’t need to spend money or effort on something that isn’t happening.

But climate change is hard to ignore if you pay attention to what is happening to weather around the world.  Those who don’t want it to be true usually have an agenda that doesn’t include any remediation of climate change.  Mr. Trump, despite all his boasting, is not a scientist.  And thousands of eminent climatologists and associated scientists have chimed in on the reality of climate change.  The so-called advantages of climate change such as opening Arctic shipping have several serious downsides, such as damage to Arctic (and Antarctic) ecosystem and rising sea levels.  A one meter rise in ocean levels will devastate many ocean side cities and beaches.  The severe weather that so many places in the world are encountering are not one-off phenomenon.  They are happening more and more and increasing every year.  A perturbation in one place in any particular place does not prove anything.  There are always perturbations in any year, but it is trends that are important here.  Trends show a rising global temperature.  One of the most significant indications of this is the rise in temperature in the Pacific Ocean.  The Pacific is the great heat sink of the world and it controls most of the weather in both the Southern and Northern hemispheres.  Weather patterns originate in the Pacific Ocean that control the climate of the Americas which in turn influences the weather patterns in Europe and Africa. 

Not, it is very hard to ignore climate change, but far too easy to deny it.