Posted: 07/01/2004 | Author: H. Sterling Burnett
Fresh New Ideas For Eluding A Warming World
With the release of the summer blockbuster movie “The Day After Tomorrow,” global warming was, for a time, a top of the news story once again. Though even most environmentalists admitted that the climate apocalypse contained in the movie lacked a scientific basis, they still applauded the fact that it “re-opened a dialogue” on the important issue of global warming.
The truth is our knowledge of the climate system and the causes of the earth’s present warming trend are constantly improving. However, the more we learn about the complex web of human activities and natural factors that contribute to climate change, the more it throws into doubt the simple idea that if we just cut human caused greenhouse gas emissions the planet would cease to warm, ending the threat of climate change induced floods, disease and sea level.
For instance, scientists have long acknowledged an “Urban Heat Island” effect – the fact that urban areas with acres upon acres of concrete radiate more heat, making them several degrees warmer than surrounding, less developed areas – which makes it difficult to easily compare past measured temperatures with present temperatures.
A June 2004 report from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) calculated that in the U.S. alone, impervious surfaces – roads, houses, parking lots, and businesses to you and me – cover approximately 43,480 square miles. This equals about 1.5 percent of the lower 48 states and is more than 5,500 square miles greater than the nations remaining herbaceous wetlands. If the NOAA report is correct, then the urban heat island affect is greater than current climate models estimate. This means the models’ attribution of the cause of the present warming trend and its possible effects may be way off.
In addition, the NOAA report adds one more voice to the growing chorus of those who point to increased coastal and waterway development, with its associated impervious surfaces, rather than climate change, as the primary cause for the increasing number and costs of floods that regularly get attributed by the popular media to global warming.
Unfortunately this report, as with others that have noted the climate effects of urbanization and other land use changes, has been largely ignored by environmentalists and their allied environmental reporters since it does not conform to their predetermined belief that human energy use must be curtailed to slow catastrophic global warming.
Yet if NOAA and other researchers are correct, human caused greenhouse gas emissions may not be the main culprit behind the current warming. With this in mind, I’d like to offer a few “modest” proposals to mitigate the planet warming effects of modern society’s land use changes.
First, stop building new roads and start ripping out current highways. We have to stop our deadly addiction to concrete and asphalt, and return to the environmentally pure dirt roads. Once this reform is adopted, it might pave the way for an even more important step – the reintroduction of horses as our primary mode of transportation. This one step will cut down on air pollution, reduce CO2 emissions, and drastically cut into the number of traffic accidents.
Of course huge tracts of land currently set aside as forests, public parks and as farms will have to be “reclaimed” as pasture to feed the horses. And, we might have just traded one pollution problem for another. After all, we’ll have to decide what will be done with the massive amounts of solid waste generated by our four-legged people movers.
While we’re rolling back time, let’s talk housing. Sod homes are well insulated and are low cost to build. They’re not just for hobbits anymore. Sharing one’s home with dirt and bugs seems a small price to pay to save the planet from slightly warmer winter nights.
Finally, we have to make the beaches off limits. Vacationers need to be forced to get their tans by pitching a tent on the high plains. This would allow us to tear down those unsightly beachfront hotels and condominiums and restore coastal wetlands. And think of the savings to insurance companies from reduced flood damage liability.
Of course, the above suggestions are in jest, but they are no more laughable than the idea that we can cut our greenhouse gas emissions significantly enough in the short-term to prevent future warming without economic and environmental consequences as severe. Rather than spending precious time and resources fighting a losing battle, which even if successful may or may not mitigate climate change, we should take steps to mitigate the negative affects of a warmer world, regardless of the cause.