Last month
it was reported that Greenland’s glaciers are dumping
twice as much water into the Atlantic Ocean than 10
years ago due to warmer global temperatures.
Earlier
this month, another study reported that Antarctica's ice
sheet, which holds 90% of the Earth's ice is in
"significant decline."
At first
glance, these findings seem to be what to expect as a
result of global warming. But they are the opposite of
that which the UN-mandated Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change forecasted in 2001.
Current
global warming theories predict that the Antarctic ice
shelf should grow in the 21st century due to greater
precipitation produced by a warming climate.
Contradictions like this are reminders that it is often
difficult to know the truth about global warming. It is
a subject that is politically charged and often
agenda-driven. Junk science is sprinkled in with good
science. Researchers contradict each other’s findings.
And among the dire predictions of doom and gloom is the
suggestion that a warmer climate would be beneficial,
producing longer growing seasons, greater crop yields
and the capability of feeding more people.
Consider
what happened during the Medieval Warm Period, sometimes
referred to as the Medieval Climate Optimum, a period
that spanned from the 10th to the 14th
centuries. Rising temperatures increased crop yields in
Europe, and allowed for the settlement of Iceland and
Greenland as the ice shelf receded. Swamps dried up and
mosquito populations shrank leading to a decrease in
infant mortality causing an increase in the population
of Europe from 40 million to 60 million.
Contrast
that with the first of two events I witnessed last
year.
In August,
during a trek through the Andes Mountains in Peru, my
fifth such trek since 1999, the temperature during both
daytime and at night were noticeably warmer. One
afternoon we stumbled upon a high-altitude Quechua
village where a drought had dried up a small stream—the
only source of water for irrigation. The crops had
failed and instead of preparing for harvest, the people
were starving.
Four
months later in December I witnessed another strange
event—literally in our backyard. We live on a small,
4-acre lake in northern Morris County, formed by the
impoundment of a small stream that flows from our town’s
reservoir.
The first
part of the month began with frigid, below normal
temperatures. Then, shortly before Christmas, the
mercury soared dramatically into the 60s. Around this
time, I observed numerous Herring Gulls that were
feeding on small fish in the open part of the lake that
had thawed. Their numbers steadily grew. On December 23,
while walking our dog, I noticed dozens of dead Alewife
herring that had become lodged between the rocks above
the waterfall where the lake spills out at its lower
end. At first, I thought someone had dumped out a pail
of baitfish. But the number of dead Alewives were too
numerous. And by now, the number of gulls had increased
to 186.
Bob Papson,
a biologist with the New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection didn’t know what to make of it
when we spoke on the telephone. But an article posted on
the Internet by the University Of Wisconsin Sea Grant
Institute explained what I witnessed.
In their
native habitat alewives are anadromous, i.e. they live
in salt water but like salmon, enter fresh water rivers
and streams in the spring to spawn. Alewives that have
adapted to living in fresh water such as the ones in our
lake do not do well where there are rapid temperature
changes.
The spate
of balmy December weather continued into January, making
it the warmest January on record. Here in the Northeast,
temperatures climbed into the 60s on several afternoons.
Yet here
we are two weeks from spring and the mercury plummeted
into the low teens this past Friday evening, two days
after another late-winter storm dumped snow, sleet and
freezing rain on the region.
It’s easy
to point to these as “isolated events.” Yet it appears
there are a lot of weather-related “isolated events”
occurring all over the globe.
Should we
stress? I’m not. The New International Version of the
Bible contains 569 references to “the earth.” One of
them found in Psalm 97 reads, “The Lord reigns, let the
earth be glad.” Or in the vernacular of pop culture,
“Don’t worry, be happy”—even if it is getting a little
warmer.
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