In the 50+ years I have lived on this little blue dot hula-hooping the small star in our solar system which is in the Milky Way which is itself hurtling toward the Andromeda galaxy, I have seen, heard, and learned things to which my response is a low ponderous ‘Hmmm’.
- Sometime in the ’70’s while in sixth grade, I was alarmed to hear that the earth might be entering another Ice Age. Prepare to be cold. Hmmm. It was also during this decade I learned of OPEC & barrels, supply, demand, and fuel-pump gas prices.
- In the 80’s while in college, a Physics professor mused that nuclear power generation was releasing energy which had been captive in the earth’s mantle. Potential energy gone to thermal is adding heat to the system. Hmmm. The same is true of burning fossil fuels. All that contained heat, energy, and greenhouse gas released.
- The Lake Nyos disaster. The release of a concentrated cloud of CO2 killed 1,700 people in Cameroon in 1986. Silent but deadly, a killer fart if ever there was one, an epic natural disaster. Hmmm. Technological advances have been in the making to capture CO2 during energy production using coal generation, CCS – Carbon Capture & Storage. Hmmm. Where do we dispose of these hot little Lake Nyos containment cannisters? Dispose of them with the nuclear waste? Oh. Wait. Never mind. (This link to the Lake Nyos disaster is interesting. And thorough.)
- Water, aka H2O, in it’s vapor form, is a greenhouse gas. With the globe warming and ice melting, there will be more H2O in the atmosphere which will reflect the sun’s rays tending toward cooling? Or oppressive humidity? The difference between clouds that warm and clouds that cool is small. Hmmm.
- The solar cycle, magentic pole reversals. Hmmm. The earth is acted upon by universal forces out of our control. And gravity. That low slow pull towards bigger things, and we’ve all fallen …
And should you, my dear reader, be concerned that this list be construed as a nod to those who contend that human impact on climate change is insignificant, be not afraid. When was the last time you used an aerosol spray can?
We are a skeptic gardener.