Climate Paradigm Shift
The heavy flooding we just experienced is a clear sign of a climate paradigm shift. A rough definition of a paradigm is something that is in what is considered to be a normal state. A paradigm shift is an abrupt change from the norm to a new state which becomes the new norm.
For instance, around 500 million years ago, Pennsylvania’s eastern boarder faced south and Pennsylvania sat around twenty degrees south of the equator. That paradigm lasted for millennia. Much of the tropic foliage from that paradigm created the coal and oil deposits that we now extract for fuel.
When the continents shifted, over millions of years the tropical paradigm shifted to an ice age paradigm inflicting great change to Pennsylvania. Finally the paradigm again shifted ushering in the stable comfortable climate pattern that we’ve experienced for the last ten thousand years.
Well folks, we are experience another paradigm shift from that stable comfortable climate to the new global warming paradigm. Since we have not had the political will or consumption restraint to avert the ramifications of the well documented approach of global warming, we are now poised to pay the price.
The recent storm that dumped over a foot of water in a few hours in some parts of Pennsylvania was the product of global warming. This storm originated near the Florida Keys in the waters that never cooled during last year’s warm winter.
Get ready; this is only the beginning, its going to get much worse. No longer can we plan or live like we are still in the stable climate paradigm - it is gone.
I can just hear naysayers quacking over my having said this, as they did when the same was said about Hurricane Katrina. But, I say, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…
Considering that we’ve had three consecutive years of “hundred year” floods; considering that every year since 1997 has been the hottest year recorded in many centuries, with 2005 being the hottest, I’m convinced it’s a duck.
This year’s tornado season experienced more tornados in one week than were recorded in entire tornado seasons of the past. There are endless signs of global warming worldwide. Rather than reiterating the list here, go see the movie, An Inconvenient Truth. This movie not only lays out the visible evidence, it supports it with the best available science.
Historically, along with each climate paradigm shift was the necessity for species to adjust or go extinct. So far, humans haven’t begun to adjust; we’re still in denial. Despite knowledge of the causes of global warming, our cars have gotten bigger with lower gas mileage. Each gallon of gas spews 25 pounds of CO2 in the atmosphere that destroys ozone for hundreds of years, yet the auto industry predominantly produces gas-hog SUVs and Hummers.
The new paradigm means extreme weather will be the norm, yet we haven’t shifted from building energy-hog houses on steep hills far from most social amenities like grocery stores, public transportation and the work place. Building homes on hillsides causes severe flooding in the valleys.
Why are we still building developments on farmland far form economic hubs given that within the next thirty years when the world oil supply runs out we will have to rely on bicycles or other non petroleum propelled means of transportation?
We still have a chance to softening the impact of global warming, but this new paradigm calls for us to adjust by implementing energy efficient heating and cooling systems, lighting, appliances and electrical equipment in residential and industrial facilities. We need to design “green buildings” that are far less reliant on conventional energy sources. We need to convert school bus fleets, cab fleets, rent-a-car fleets, trucking fleets, municipal and government fleets to alternative fuel vehicles and we must subsidize and modernize public transportation. The future requires a mix of alternative energy sources like wind, solar, and bio-fuels.
Species that don’t adjust don’t survive. The Mayan and Anasazi civilizations are a testament to that. Will we squander our future or will we be survivors?
© 2006 Richard Whiteford
