It's high time to deal with global warming

Burlington Free Press, April 07, 2003

During this winter as we experienced the frigid arctic weather that kept many of us inside and away from our usual enjoyment of Vermont 's glorious winters, I received some good-natured kidding about global warming.

We here at the Burlington Electric Department have been a member of the regional Alliance for Climate Action, which encourages people to reduce greenhouse their gas emissions and to take part in the 10 percent Challenge. The Web site is http://www.10percentchallenge.org/

While the comments I heard were only in jest, I still thought it would be wise to address the question of "how can it be so cold when we are concerned about global warming?"

The straight answer is that global warming is in fact happening, and the sad fact is that the extremely cold weather we experienced could be a direct result of global warming.

An article recently written by Paul Epstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, and James J. McCarthy, professor of oceanography at Harvard University and a co-author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2001 Assessment, summed up the possibility of this relationship well, drawing a connection between the addition of the cold, fresh water that is entering the Atlantic Ocean from a variety of melting sources and the weather we experienced.

They said, "Warming causes ice to melt, forming cold fresh water. And increased input of cold fresh water to the ocean can affect weather patterns as well as global ocean circulation. Recent warming in the Northern Hemisphere has melted a lot of North Polar ice. Since the 1970s the floating North Polar ice cap has thinned by almost half. A second source of cold fresh water comes from Greenland , where continental ice is now melting at higher elevations each year.

" Some melt water is trickling down through crevasses; lubricating the base, accelerating ice 'rivers,' and increasing the potential for sudden slippage. A third source of cold fresh water is rain at high latitudes. Overall, ocean warming speeds up the water cycle, increasing evaporation.

"The warmed atmosphere can also hold and transport more water vapor from low to high latitudes. Water falling over land is enhancing discharge from five major Siberian rivers into the Arctic , and water falling directly over the ocean adds even more fresh water to the surface. The cold, freshened waters of the North Atlantic accelerate transatlantic winds, and this may be one factor driving frigid fronts down the eastern US seaboard and across to Europe and Asia ."

Global warming is not about enjoying a slightly warmer winter than what we're used to in Vermont . It's about a change that can produce erratic weather patterns around the globe. It is about the possibility of having a very shortened ski season in Vermont and no maple sugar industry at all.

As the greenhouse gas emissions, caused by a release of carbon dioxide mostly from fossil fuel burning, build up in our atmosphere, we are helping to greatly exacerbate this problem. Erratic weather is something we are becoming quite familiar with as record temperatures (low and high), record droughts, record floods, etc., seem to be the story of the day.

Scientists from around the world -- at least the ones who publish in peer-reviewed journals and who are respected by their colleagues -- are speaking with one voice on this issue.

"The issue of climate change respects no border. Its effects cannot be reined in by an army nor advanced by any ideology. Climate change, with its potential to impact every corner of the world, is an issue that must be addressed by the world." Can you guess who made that statement? It was none other than President Bush.

He has stated publicly that it is a problem, and a problem that needs to be confronted. Most industrialized nations -- including our next-door neighbor Canada -- are doing much more than we are to confront global warming. It is time we caught up.
Mary Sullivan is communications coordinator for the Burlington Electric Company