week eight--global warming

The Big Heat Wave, The Big Freeze

I am standing here and now in the city of New Orleans which was once in Louisiana, but is now in the underwater Louisiana reef. Although I am trudging through thick mud on the floor of the ocean, I still feel like I am walking where my ancestors once walked along the streets of this historic city. Although many cities on the former American coast are still standing above the water line today, many like this one have been sunk. It only took several meters of water to make several miles into the coastline unlivable for civilized society. At least in this community, taking up boating was not difficult. This area also once was much cooler only seeing high temperatures of around 105 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, the temperature can sometimes escalate to 120 degrees. Society tried to see this coming and stop it like holding an umbrella up to a tidal wave. Major countries were able to agree to climate pacts, but it seemed like even the most progress made didn’t really result in tangible change. At that point, the countries involved in such pacts decided not to participate if they had no progress to show the people. Perhaps something could have been done if they had stuck to it despite the lack of immediate evidence of change.

The issue we now face that is the issue I am studying today in the year 7018 is the prospect of global cooling. This was once called the “ice age”. The expanded oceans and heightened temperatures have also increased the amount of cloud cover that falls over the earth. This world looked totally different 5,000 years ago. Back then, there were partly cloudy days and even sunny days in this area and even up north into Canada. Now, it is mainly cloud cover which prevents adequate solar energy from entering certain climate systems. Today, we need to learn from our ancestors and their efforts to control the long-term climate in order to avoid our own icy apocalypse.