In response to Jeremy Wick's article Recent figures suggest greater climate debate.""
The author's understanding of global warming is at best shallow, and at most, vacuous. Please go back to read decades of scientific literature, not the pablum the Bush Administration has put out by covering up the science behind climate issues.
Global Warming should not be an economic or political issue, as it has become under our current administration. Global Climate Change is a very real issue that has severe consequences for all of us. I learned about Global Warming in the 1960's in my undergraduate classes; I am sorry to see it has disappeared from our curriculum in the last several decades. Scientific American had a very well-written article on the patterns in the 1960's, too.
Models of global warming show more extreme variation in weather patterns than normal, meaning there will be highs, and - oh my God - lows! In addition, when northern ice sheets melt, the Gulf current, which warms Europe, will be diluted and disappear. As a result, Europe will be colder than it is now. That's actually part of global warming, also known as the global climate change model!
Global warming is not a simplistic theory about increasing temperatures, but a very complicated model of what can and will happen. Ignoring global climate change, as we have ignored the unregulated economy, will bring us to our knees, except more effectively and permanently. The changes will occur in your future. Even a few degrees of average change (not the same as changes across the seasons, but equivalent to bringing our baseline temperatures higher) can affect the natural fauna and flora (and what we can grow where), water cycles (water will replace oil as a political, economic and social commodity) and food security. For example, the recent Great Lakes Compact is a result of growing concerns about other states depleting our waters due to worsening water shortages in the South and the West. Minor changes in wind patterns and moisture levels can result in major climatic modifications regionally and globally.
The Arctic is one area that is extremely sensitive to increased average temperatures. Ice reflects sunlight. When ice melts, the sunlight is absorbed by the water, increasing the temperatures of the waters surrounding the ice sheets and hastening their melting. Thus, there is an increasing meltdown of the Arctic ice sheets due to the positive feedback.
My advice to you is to avoid the simplistics of the uneducated. Read thoroughly and fully and all the time before you go advocating for the idiotic ""No sky is falling!"" side. Global warming is real, and has been studied for over a century. We have some of the top climatologists here on campus. Jonathan Patz was lead author on the report that shared the Nobel Prize with Al Gore. UW-Madison has some of the more brilliant scientists in the area. Go talk to them. Ask them to evaluate what is wrong with your assumptions.
A good commentator is a knowledgeable reporter, someone who understands the issues from all sides. Your opinion piece revealed you have little understanding of the issues, and that your economics training is blinding you to facts important to making decent and important policy changes.
- Mara McDonald, Ph.D.
Academic Staff
UW-Madison
