A student’s view on the reality of climate change
Olayinka Gbolahan
Staff Writer
Consider the snow storm from Wednesday, April 10. It brings questions about the authenticity of climate change.
Climate change is caused by the excess release of greenhouse gases like carbon-dioxide (CO2) into the earth’s atmosphere and may eventually result into the decimation of our planet.
The projected effects of Climate Change in the Midwest are and not limited to; “extreme heat, heavy downpour, and flooding which would affect infrastructures, health, agriculture, forestry, transportation, air and water quality. Climate change will also exacerbate a range of risks to the great lakes.” According to GlobalChange.gov, a U.S Global change research program.
I personally believe climate change is real due to evidence presented by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on climate change. For example, from annual earth vital readings and global warming measurements from NASA, it relives the earth’s surface temperature. It has risen about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th century, with 2016 being the warmest year on record. This increase is not easily digestible by many people because I doubt if an increase by an average of 1.62 is noticeable by the human body.
These findings by NASA validates research from Minnesota Pollution Control Agency that shows statewide temperatures in Minnesota have increased 1-3 degrees Fahrenheit and an average low temperature have risen more quickly than an average high temperature, especially at nighttime lows by a result of human activities.
Another evidence of climate change has to do with precipitation. According to MPCA, the total precipitation amount increased by over 20 percent (5.5 inches) in the Twin Cities as some of us might have noticed. It also gave projections of increase in precipitation in autumn and spring months and decrease in summer months, which would result to drier summers and snowier or wetter winters. According to satellite observations from NASA, the amount of spring to snow cover in the northern hemisphere has decreased over the past five decades due to early melting.
Although I have not necessarily observed this early melting, scientific observers from the National Snow and Ice Data Center validates this point of early snow melting, which is one of the results of the high sea levels.
Evidence from changes in the depth and temperature of the ocean also validate that climate change is real. According to NASA, “The top 700 meters of ocean showing of more than 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1969 and the global sea level rising about eight inches in the last century.”
This is an evidence of climate change that has been experienced in Minnesota, with the suggestive and significant loss of fish habitat for many prominent species, including trout and walleye due to high ocean temperatures.
Other evidence of climate change includes: glacial retreats, shrinking ice sheets, declining artic sea ice, ocean acidification and more.
After reviewing all this evidence and not finding any evidence that strongly suggests otherwise, it is safe to say I believe in climate change and its effects.
Header photo courtesy of Flickr.
Fifty-five million years ago, the Earth went through a two hundred thousand year long period of global warming called the Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum where the Antarctic was was covered with pine forests and Wyoming was covered with palm forests (just ask the education professors on campus about this.) As a result, primates started to evolve fairly rapidly due to the warming of temperatures and the increase of oxygen in the atmosphere allowing early primates to evolve bigger brains.
So don’t feel bad about climate change. Perhaps we will evolve into a much more intelligent species if we don’t destroy ourselves. Perhaps there will not only be advanced primates, but also advanced ungulates like genius giraffes who lie on the savanna looking up at the stars at night and are able to do instant parallax calculations with their advanced brains while looking at Cepheids and LL Lyras with those huge oval shaped eyes of theirs. Of course, the capitalist humans will eventually wipe them out since genuine intelligence is totally impractical and therefor more of a hindrance to survival in a world of human capitalism and survival-of-the fittest social and natural Darwinism. So, don’t waste your time with all this science stuff and get yourself into a Marketing Major at Minnesota State University so you can make money until the end of time, which may be much sooner than you think. Scientist say that in six hundred million years the sun will be so hot that it will kill all the life on the surface of the planet. That’s a lot earlier than most of us expected. We all thought the Sun was in its half life at five billion years old, but not us or any other form of life.