Are we handing our kids a train wreck?

Published Wednesday, August 1, 2007

I just returned from a steamy walk this morning, despite the warnings in the Daily Journal yesterday which stated that our air quality was "listed at a moderate level" and that "older adults, children, and people with heart or lung disease, as well as those suffering from asthma should take precautions when outdoors during these conditions."

Being that I didn't fit any of these categories (although my children might say that I'm in the "older adult" category), I ventured out this morning and survived it. Do these warnings startle anyone but me?? All of a sudden, it's not safe to go outside, and yet this is tucked into a short article on the weather for the week. I'm not faulting the Journal. In fact, I'm glad that they are telling us that much. However, what list are they referring to, and what are the ramifications for our environment as a whole?

This summer, on a trip to Holden Village (during which our family traveled 3,000 miles in a Chevy Suburban, spewing vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere), I attended a session on climate change that taught me about something I had not previously been aware of: the Albedo effect. Haven't heard of this? I hadn't either, but it turns out that it's an important concept. It has to do with the parts of our earth that have the capacity to reflect back into space a good portion of the sun's harmful rays and heat. The rainforests have a significant Albedo Affect. However, ice is the most powerful force in this regard. In fact, what I learned is that the ice in the Arctic Circle and the ice covering Greenland compose 80 percent of this reflective power. You've probably heard about the Arctic ice sheets melting and the fate of those cute polar bears. It seems that it took some polar bears dying to finally get some attention to this problem. It appears that if these sheets melt away, then the Greenland ice sheet will only be able to reflect 40 percent of these rays, which will contribute to the warming and cause the Greenland ice sheet to melt more quickly. Once these ice sheets are gone, the cycle of warming will be irreversible, and we will be headed for a climate hotter than the earth has ever known.

All of this information is spelled out in more scientific terms in a paper by Dr. James Hansen from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University Earth Institute. The paper is entitled "Climate Change and Trace Gases" and was published May 18, 2007. The article can be found in its entirety at

http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/doc/2007/2007/__Hansen^etal_2.pdf.

I am fearful that we are handing down to our children a train wreck of mammoth proportions. Dr. Hansen feels that we have only one or two decades, not the next century, to figure this situation out. It is a situation that makes one feel helpless and hopeless. Only with many people working together can there be hope to make significant change. Because of this, I would like to invite people in our community to come together on this issue and begin a dialogue that would invite change. We must begin to act because the government is moving far too slowly on this issue. Please meet at NP Park on Aug. 8 at 6:30 p.m. if you are interested in joining this discussion. I would especially encourage civic leaders, pastors, science teachers, and those within the science community, as well as those who are interested in their children's future, to attend.

Treats will be provided!

Bern Monke - Fergus Falls