Clyde Burnett, Peak to Peak. Our recent extreme weather has made believers of the young folks in Climate Strikes. But do they understand all the other science fundamentals of global warming?  And that 400+ ppm in the atmosphere isn’t going away before they become retired senior citizens?  

That FEMA support for hurricane Michael is our tax payments. Rebuild like it was won’t work. Move! And it won’t be cheap!

And then there is methane. It’s a much stronger heat trapper. Those leaks from drilling need to be controlled. With a little bit more delay of warming we might just get eruptions from the permafrost and shallow seas.

Thirty years ago after discovering the ozone hole, we signed the international Montreal Protocol to stop making CFC to protect the ozone layer. It works and we are slowly decreasing the tropospheric CFC reservoir and the ozone hole will be closed, but not for another 50 years.

Now we hope to have an international end to the CO2 greenhouse gas emissions in 10 years. But letting Nature take its course, the atmospheric trapping by CO2 will continue for another century or more. Category 5 hurricanes with floods and tornadoes won’t just disappear.  

And it’s not just weather. Those King tides in Florida are higher because sea levels are increasing. Antarctica ice is disappearing!

Do the research and see what is truly happening. 

These migrating robins know when it’s time to adapt and they are not so confused that they have yellow bills!

(Originally published in the October 17, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)