It’s time to prepare for a changing Earth
It’s hard to believe that there are still global climate change skeptics. In fact, the President of the United States and the party he leads either claim to consider global warming to be a hoax or they drag their feet in response to the obvious. The ongoing Paris Accord on Global Climate Change that began on Dec. 2 in Madrid is happening without the U.S., the only major country not involved. What a shame.
Climatologists agree we are facing a global climate crisis in need of immediate response. However, our current administration has increased output of greenhouse gasses through such things as prohibiting better mileage in new cars, allowing more methane release by the oil industry, favoring the coal industry, and even recommending light bulb types that use more energy.
But it’s hard to miss the reality of global climate change. Warming seas and atmosphere, truly massive forest fires in California, Alaska, Siberia, Portugal, the Canary Islands, Australia, Indonesia, Bolivia and Brazil, among others, and intensifying and wetter storms in the last three years all point to global climate change. Just last week, the East African country of Djibouti received nearly two years worth of rain in a single day. The recent sunny day flood that did so much damage in Venice is just one example of what sea level rise has in store for coastal cities.
One expected impact in both North America and Europe is greatly increased pressure from climate refugee immigrants. For example, Sub-Sahara Africa faces severe temperature extremes, making some areas virtually uninhabitable, which combined with food shortages is bound to produce massive migration numbers, especially to Europe. Climate changes in South and Central America will greatly increase the number of climate refugees knocking on our doors. A recent Oxfam study found that over the past decade climate-fueled disasters drove 20 million people a year from their homes.
Other climate refugees will come from within our own shores. Miami will eventually produce 4 to 6 million climate refugees as it floods from below through the porous limestone underlying South Florida. Much of Miami likely will be abandoned in three or four decades.
Global climate change is an obvious fact and we are already in the midst of it. The time for action is now. In two decades, in the opinion of many climatologists, it will be too late to prevent catastrophic global damage. North Carolina and other states must not wait for action to come from above. On a state level, we can do our small part by helping to decrease the global emission rates of greenhouse gasses, but we can have major local impact by timely preparation for the state’s response.
North Carolina needs an independent science panel concerned with global climate change and its impact on the state. The panel could consist of some combination of climatologists, geologists, biologists, and oceanographers. North Carolina is a large area and accurate prediction of the future must be a dynamic thing. As climate change affects some areas it may well change the nature of climate change in other areas. Although a climate change science panel could advise politicians and the public about what’s coming, the decisions for action in response would be in the political realm.
The North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission has had a distinguished science panel for years, but the panel ran into problems with the commission ordering certain restrictions on topics to be covered. This is why the global climate change panel must be truly independent. The truth sometimes hurts, but it must be faced.