LETTER TO THE EDITOR: If we don’t put Earth first, we’ll finish last
In “The End of Ice” by journalist Dahr Jamail, one of the climate scientists stated that the heating of the oceans has been measured as deep as 100 meters, or 328 feet.
One climate physicist calculated that if the heat that’s already in our oceans were to be released all at once, the average daily temperature would rise by 97 degrees.
Instead of a high of 50 degrees on the first day of winter in South Carolina, the temperature would be 147. A low of 22 would be 119. On a normal summer day that’s 95 degrees, it would be 192.
Dead planet; no life would exist. We hope that scenario doesn’t happen, but we’ve still got the problem of far too much CO2, recently measured at a record 422 parts per million, plus the addition of methane, a greenhouse gas 87 times more powerful than CO2, and continued warming of the atmosphere and oceans. A record high temperature of 70 was recently recorded in Antarctica.
In interviews, and his final book, Professor Stephen Hawking said that if we continue to ignore the problem and do nothing, the temperature in the future could rise to a Venus-like 482 degrees with sulphuric acid rain. He also said, “It may be too late.”
We better do something about climate change/global warming or Mother Nature will do something about us.
We have no other choice, there is no planet B; the time for action is quickly running out. Unfortunately, far too many corporations, politicians, and citizens couldn’t care less.
But as one scientist stated, “It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe in climate change, because Mother Nature doesn’t care what you believe.”
A geologist friend of mine in Iowa sums up the solution in just seven words: “Earth first in things, thoughts, deeds, decisions.”
Francis Parnell,
Darlington