The Changing Climate
Physical changes
It is as if humanity has hit the 'fast rewind' button climatically. Every day all across the world we burn the fossilised remains of biological material that took a long period of time to accumulate under global climatic conditions very different from the present. As a result we are releasing energy and chemicals, especially gasses, that the present biosphere cannot deal with fast enough.
The climate is getting hotter. Water trapped as ice on land is melting and staying melted and, eventually, most of it will end up in the sea. The additional energy increases wind speed as well as air temperature and the atmosphere picks up more water, which is then deposited as rain. This rain falls harder and faster and the ground cannot absorb it, which causes flooding, especially where humanity has covered large areas with less absorbent building materials. The rivers become fuller quicker and spill on to the surrounding land. The outflow from the land then meets increasing tides, because of the greater volume of water, and larger waves, driven by the fiercer winds.
Human society has not got itself prepared for the affects that we have created. Flooded land does not sustain the type of biosphere that we encourage to produce the food we rely on. Buildings and infrastructure damaged by wind and water cannot provide the shelter, transport and readily available energy supply that we have come to expect. The problems are just beginning to mount and will get worse as the affects of the fossil fuels we are currently consuming work though into the climate.
Paul Newman
April 02
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