Climate Change

On December 12, 2011, it was reported that the leaders at the UN Climate Change Conference couldn’t agree on carbon emission cuts. On January 3, 2012 we heard that scientists discovered that outside Australia 2 species of shark have combined to make a super shark that can withstand both hot and cold waters. January 5 a rare Orca (killer whale) sighting was made off the Orange County, California coast (it’s said that they’re 300 miles off course because of global warming). January 18 scientists estimated nearly 6 million bats were killed by a fungal ailment in 16 states and Canada. On January 24, 2012 we heard 36 stranded whales were dead, dozens of others were threatened off the coast of New Zealand; 2 more dolphins were stranded off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. February 1 a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the crazy weather world-wide is due to human generated causes and they can prove it (a 12’ crack in an Antarctic glacier was found). February 4 it’s said that in the past few weeks 116 dolphins beached themselves on the shores of Cape Cod, 81 died; a group went to Congress and asked for help with NOAA’s best scientists to try and figure out why it’s happening. February 15 scientists discovered a new species (a cousin of the chameleon, one inch long that doesn’t change color) in the rain forests of Madagascar. February 22 scientists discover a new family of legless amphibians in India. March 5 a massive chunk of a glacier fell in an Argentina lake; it’s been 4 years since such an event has occurred. Hawaii’s big island volcano erupted, spilling lava on a sparsely occupied suburb; the volcano has been erupting for decades but it’s become more active recently. March 11 a freak hailstorm and tornado hit Hawaii. March 29 a UN report came out saying all nations should prepare for costly weather related disasters. March 31 the citrus disease that killed million of trees in Florida and Brazil is now found in California. April 18 a new shrimp-like species was found in a New Mexico cave. April 23 an albino Orca was spotted off the Russian coast. May 17 Texas had a rare 4.3 earthquake. May 25 it’s reported that butterflies moved north because of climate change. July 17 on my local NBC station I heard that next year Harvard scientists want to fly a hot air balloon over New Mexico and at 80,000 feet spray sun reflecting chemicals (consistent with those released by volcanoes) into the air; other scientists said wide spread use of the chemicals could have a negative effect on global warming. On July 18 it’s said an iceberg twice the size of Manhattan breaks off a Greenland glacier.

Back in November 2011 I did a couple of blogs that related to this issue (17^th - Global Warming, 18^th – Energy) because the Republican candidates were denying it. And, on January 31 on the View I heard that Fox News accused the Muppets of being anti-oil in their new movie; the Muppets response: Kermit said - if we had a problem with oil why would we have spent so much time driving around in a gas guzzling Rolls Royce; Miss Piggy said that would be like accusing Fox News of being news. June 23 it was said that the earth’s rotation is slowing and one second was added to the day; this didn’t affect the weather but some computers all over the world couldn’t handle the one second add on.

On July 10 the US government backed the newly released annual State of the Climate Report made by hundreds of scientists in 48 countries. The scientists have tested the earth’s natural greenhouse gases and found they haven’t risen so global warming and recent bad weather is the result of manmade causes (carbon dioxide, methane and nitric-oxide increases). Glaciers and sea ice around the world continue to shrink (30 times faster than expected), temperatures on land and sea are rising, over the past 100 years oceans have risen 10 inches and they’re predicting they will rise 12 inches more by 2050 (less than 40 years). We’re not at the tipping point yet but if we don’t start making changes it will come sooner than expected.

All of the odd things listed here along with the erratic weather (record breaking temperatures, floods and drought) has increased feed costs for the animals as well as destroyed many crops and it’s all because of global warming. In January we heard this along with an increase in exports (up 11% last year) there isn’t enough beef cattle to go around and the price of beef has gone up 24% in the last 5 years and it’s expected to jump another 8% this year.

We need a President that believes we can do something to slow down global warming and keep jobs and food here in the US; not someone who believes exporters should get tax credits. Tomorrow I’ll talk about the US attempts made to curtail global warming.