Climate Change and Climate Hysteria always seem rather strange to me. You see when I was growing up, we were told many times by many people that the world was going to end because of one climate crisis or another. I was told the ozone would deplete and we would all die of cancer as solar radiation killed us because of aerosol cans. I was told that because of pollution we would all die from acid rain destroying everything and poisoning the water supplies. I was told there would be an ice age. I was told the polar icecaps would melt and we would all drown. Here we are today and a lot of stuff said just does not get mentioned anymore. Now it is climate change, where the world will be thrown into chaos by ever exaggerating seasons.
So let's start with the basics. What is Climate Change? Climate change is something that happens with or without us. Due to changing balances in the atmosphere, changes in our orbit, and a lot of external causes, the climates change. Even tectonic plate movement changes things.
So what is the big deal? Well, specifically people are arguing over man's impact on the climate. Climate change is real, but the effects people have on it are what is being debated. The biggest debate is over "greenhouse gases." So let's get a little scientific. When we are talking about greenhouse gases, we are taking about certain molecules in the atmosphere that hold heat longer. This is pretty much everything except stuff like O2 (oxygen), N2 (Nitrogen), noble gases (Hydrogen, Helium, Neon, Argon, etc.), basically simple molecules. Greenhouse gases themselves complex molecules like CO2 (carbon dioxide), CH4 (Methane), H2O (water [vapor]), SO2 (sulfur dioxide), and so on. What makes these chemicals greenhouse gases is because of the ability to store heat longer. The idea is that these chemicals can vibrate much more than simple molecules, which is what heat energy is. This would mean that over the cooling cycle of night, the air stays warmer for longer. Thus there is less time to cool off and temperatures rise. On top of that, many of these chemicals have other effects or interactions with the environment. Consider O3 (ozone), a complex molecule that is really good at absorbing radiation. This protects us from a lot of dangerous radiation, but would also be bad to breath in directly.
So how do we know what will happen if the greenhouse gases keep rising? This is where things get a little more interesting. Back in the time of dinosaurs, take for example the Jurassic period, CO2 was much higher than now by about 5 times. About the only thing this amounts to would be animals adjusting to low oxygen environments, something people intentionally do to themselves for things like running marathons, and possibly bigger plants. There is a lot of data we have that is indirect from times when the atmosphere was "worse" than it is now. With the direct data we have now, it would be hard to tell what the effects would be.
So why all the hysteria? Part of it is our reliance on computer models. Remember, I work in IT. Computers are dumb. Computer models are stupid. It amazes me that people take our weather and climate models as being super accurate and at the same time laugh at how unrealistic games are when attempting to re-create simple physics. A computer model is just simply a person putting together an algorithm to calculate a human guess with much faster math. These models are not smarter than people, they are just faster than a person calculating and can often contain really bad errors. One of my favorite errors are floating point errors. Math on computers is not as simple or good as most people like to think. So when it comes to the "models," spare me because I call them out during hurricanes when they are about as good as people speculating and guessing with nothing to go on but their own experience and observations. Not to mention we do not know all the variables involved or the full effects.
Here's the real root of the hysteria part. Hysteria over climate change drives up oil and gas prices. Despite having no effect on the supply at the time, the hysteria drives prices up. The government adds taxes, joining in on the profit. It plays into the hands of big oil companies and the government, meanwhile many think they are fighting against and bringing down the exact same entities. Then as the oil companies get more money, these groups fighting them spring back and push more, gathering more money in donations and the like. It's a self-feeding beast. Now it is massive and has put us where we are today.
I am not saying climate change is fake, or humans have no impact, or that we should not do anything. Here is the reality. Climate change is real, we just do not know the full extent of it yet because we do not have that much directly observed data. Everything has an impact on it, even humans, we just do not know how much of an impact humans have on it. We do not need to panic, nature is good at doing what it needs to keep going.
Now many of the climate hysterical people tell us we need to cut back on fossil fuels. Here is the way I look at it. Countries and people that can should look at cheaper and more reliable sources of energy because that's the smart thing to do even if there was no climate change. However, there are a lot of poor countries that cutting it back now could cause more problems. So let's be smart about it.
On the opposite side of the table, there are people that say there is absolutely no cause for alarm, keep on keeping on. This is dumb. There are plenty of reasons to go "green" even if you don't care about the environment or think there is no threat.
Here is the reason you should go green to benefit you. Switching your light bulbs to LED may be an investment, but they last longer and cut back on the electric bill which could save you money in the long run. Getting a more fuel efficient car will save you money on gas, which means less money from gas taxes feeding the government beast. Walking or taking a bike is free to get around and good for your own health. Planting trees around your house can reduce costs on cooling in the summer with the shade and if they bear fruit, could reduce your food bill. If you are on city water, using less water saves you money. Reusable items can save you money and even time. Consuming less and not being a fatty costs less and is better for you. Recycling certain items saves energy and reduces the need for landfills. Really any reasonable way to save yourself some money here and there is probably going to benefit the environment and reduce the impact we have on the world around us.
I, personally, like keeping things green because I like nature and I like saving money. I have fruit trees scattered about on my yard, LEDs in the house, backyard chickens, a bunch of reusable stuff, I drive a hybrid (I drive around 100 miles a day, so gas can be a major expense for me), and really anything I can to save money or make my yard look better.
The world probably will not break apart at the seams tomorrow. Try not to be hysterical about stuff we are still gathering data on and probably have not identified all the variables yet. Also do not become complacent like everything is all okay. There are plenty of problems with the environment we should keep in mind. Most importantly, stop acting like stupid computer models ran by stupid computers made by people somehow can reveal all the secrets we do not know.