I am seventeen and blowing up a glacier. I love glaciers so much that I destroy them. Now, rather than blow them up, I get into my car driving in circles to push as much carbon into the atmosphere as I physically can. A mathmetician said to me, variance. There is just too much variance to know whether humans are responsible for the warming we are witnessing in our present environment. How about another math word- correlation. Carbon dioxide versus temperature change, 650,000 years and never have we had such high carbon dioxide as we do now- oh, and Greenland is melting fast...15 feet of sea level rise in my lifetime predictedWhen checking luggage, especially mountaineering equipment, it is best not to refer to ones ice axes of evil. To avoid intense scrutiny, I've named them silly picks. My new glistening ice ax much lighter than its lumbering 10 year older counterpart. Still neither are exactly soft looking. (A contrast to the serenity of the ptarmigans gaurding our camp.)
The first email in my in box upon returning to civilization was from my first female field science mentor- Sally McGill. She is kind enough to add my name to a publication on the Garlock fault including a map we worked on together in the summer of 1996 when I was 18. Sally inspires me in so many ways...
Also, upon returning home, Trey handed me a few rebuttles to a Dispatch editoria I wrote on the misinformation k-12 students are taught global warming and evolution. Most responded that global warming is a farce. Every temperate glacier I have ever stood on is retreating... fast. Berry left a note on my desk to a new Geophysical Research Letters publication by a Swiss crew noting the global disappearance of temperate glaciers approaching...''this will make you cry''. How true. I get my information and professors researching climate change- not popular press.
A question for the girls in the tents--- where are we heading? What is our responsibility as citizen scientists?
1 comment:
CG, I just read your climate change editorial and learned some stuff I hadn't understood related to Carbon. Specifically that we burn carbon when we do the most American of activities, like watch tv and email!! Your comment on locally produced fruits/veggies from sustainable agriculture companies/groups being better than fruits from the Kiwi's resonated as well. I'm in Michigan and all the apples at the grocer are from New Zealand. But there are more and more "road-side" stands of fruit popping up each year, which is fantastic. The amount of energy to get apples from New Zealand to here is astronomical and unnecessary, glad you pointed it out. This ties into the idea that much is to be gained from a more community-based economy, like an improved quality of life, more earth friendly and organic experience. I to am a concerned individual, a concerned geographer who is beginning a journey to do some convincing of my own. Thanks for sharing your insights and your adventures.
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