Introduction
As part of my Masters I am undertaking a Global
Environmental Change course and have been tasked with writing a blog. This is a first for me and I am enthusiastic
to see where this journey takes me.
I have decided to consider CO2 and global
temperatures of the past, present and future.
This is in part inspired by a book which I am currently reading titled
Six Degrees, Our Future on a Hotter Planet, by Mark Lynas.
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The book was published by Harper
Collins. ISBN 978-0-00-720905-7
More information about the author and
other books he has written can be found on his webpages at http://www.marklynas.org/books/
In writing his book Lynas undertook
a unique piece of work, initially researching scientific papers relating to
varying degrees of warming and arranging them in order of warming. It was this research upon which he based his
book. He carries the reader from a one
degree warming to, as the title suggests, a six degree warming spelling out in
clear terms the possible implications of each degree of warming. If you are unfamiliar with the book I can highly
recommend it. It is a page turner from
the outset and Lynas writes with a passion and enthusiasm for the topic that
draws you in. On a personal note, I found
parts of the book slightly unsettling when I was left considering the fate of life
for future generations of not only humans but also all life with which we share
out home.
As I consider this topic one
very stark image is brought to mind, Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot. I’m sure that many of you are familiar with
not only the image, but also Sagan’s quote;
“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”
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It reminds me that our home, this tiny planet is a wondrous and fascinating
place, complex and beautiful, yet fragile and unique. Often we take the environmental process that
take place for granted, they pass by unnoticed as we go about our daily lives.
Sure we notice our local weather, here in the UK it even seems to be somewhat
of a national pass time to have a good old moan about it. But how often do we really consider the
bigger processes which are at work? How often
do we think back to past climates or consider what the future climates maybe? As our tiny life raft orbits our star we feel
so secure, and climate change is something that happens a life time away, but
every day in our own little way we add to the amount of anthropogenically
produced CO2 which enters the cycle and adds to the ever growing
amount in our atmosphere.
I have heard so many people say
that the climate has changed in the past, it’s been colder, it’s been warmer,
CO2 levels have been different, so why should we care? Well this
is a topic I have a great interest in exploring further and I hope that you
enjoy the posts and topics I consider throughout the course of this blog and
will follow me on this journey of discovery.
