Global Warming Climate Change

Every year, around this time, as a nasty storm blasts across the nation, dropping snow as far South as Baton Rouge, LA, conservative bobbleheads suddenly feel compelled to shout: "boy look at this winter weather! So much for that global warming thing, huh?"

Please, stop saying that. Humans are destroying the planet whether it is apparently obvious to you or not.

The problem is that "global warming" was a term given to the process long before it was clearly understood. A better term is "climate change."

Let me give an example. As the Arctic ice melts and breaks off into icebergs, it drifts south, occasionally sinking the Titanic and cooling ocean temperatures and introducing large chunks of fresh water (Arctic icebergs contain no salt). This creates a problem by slowing the North Atlantic Gyre. The NAG is a thermohaline current that naturally takes warm, gulf water and moves it up and east, where it passes England and Ireland before splitting and passing down towards Spain or up towards Finland. Climatologists have determined that this mass of warm water drifting towards Europe is the primary reason Europe has a temperate climate despite its northern latitude; England sits at the same latitiude as British Columbia, which sees much more extreme winters.

So as the icebergs head south and melt, they cool off the gulf water, slowing this current. The freshwater acts as "speed bumps" that the current must push through or go around, furthering the slowdown. That leads to colder weather in Europe. If the NAG stopped completely, it could plunge Europe into Ice-Age-like conditions. Global warming could, in effect, cause European Cooling. So let's stop calling it global warming and call it Climate Change.

Scary thought: this isn't a science fiction entry. This has happened before. Scientists have conjectured that the "Little Ice Age" in Europe inthe 18th century was likely due to a temporary shutdown of the NAG.

I'll be the first to admit I don't have any idea how to solve the climate change problem, if it can even be solved. But using a week of cold weather in December as evidence that climate change is not occuring is like a 14 year old boy getting dumped by his first girlfriend and pouting "I'll never get married."


_