A little over a month ago, I wrote a blog called
Having Faith in Science. In it, I described how some people don't "believe" in global warming or climate change, as if their beliefs could somehow negate the facts and evidence. My takeaway quote was "Certainty in the absence of evidence is faith, and faith is not science". There is an abundance of evidence that our planet began warming at a very fast rate with the onset of the industrial age. To say we are not the cause despite all the evidence to the contrary is to wish away reality. One may choose to believe the sun will not rise tomorrow, but the sun doesn't care and rises anyway. Selfishness and foolishness are childish responses to an uncomfortable reality: we are using up the planet (at least the part on which we live - the surface).
The sun has been shining on us for billions of years. So much of that energy was stored in carbon lifeforms, sealed away below the surface. Once we began extracting it (in the form of coal and oil), what did we think was going to happen when we released all of that sun's stored energy upon the earth
in addition to the energy we continue to receive. The warming was inevitable. The only way to slow it down is to stop releasing the stored sun's energy, and start using that energy that rains down upon us in a golden torrent every day.
Global warming is a reality. Climate change is a reality. The big question is: is it too late? Unfortunately, we really can't say "no" at this point.
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