Before anyone gets on my case, no I am not a global warming denier. I totally believe the world is warming one tiny degree (obviously Fahrenheit, not Celsius) at a time. I also trust that the climatologists are correct that even a few degrees can have a huge impact. I do not understand why a change of several degrees can melt glaciers, but I assume that, like financial takeovers and moving the world, leveraging is somehow involved. I don't particularly worry about not understanding it because I don't understand electricity and, yet, the lights go on every time I hit the switch. (Except, of course, when I don't change the lightbulb, but I really hate changing lightbulbs and I get that it's the lightbulb that's the problem, not that the electricity has somehow stopped working.)
As for the idea that humans bear the responsibility for warming the planet, due to green house gases, carbon emissions, etc. Well, I'm pretty sure they're right on that, too. I'll even go out on a limb and say I'm 98% sure they're right. The 2% is my insurance in case the scientists are somehow wrong or even not quite right. I can then say, "Y'know, I always had my doubts..."
The real issue I have with this whole global warming thing is my dashed expectations. I mean, the scientists said, "Global warming!" I took this to mean, "The world is getting warmer!" I like warmer. I hate the cold. A lot. To me the idea of a warmer planet is a thing of beauty. I imagine Hawaii, but everywhere. I was looking forward to milder winters and longer summers. I even toyed with the idea of buying a huge, unnecessary SUV just to hurry things along. The thought of the oceans rising doesn't bother me, I live in Colorado. I'm pretty sure nothing's rising a mile high.
So, I was ready and eager for global warming. Then the scientists said what they really meant was that while the earth was warming, this would result not in better living conditions for those of us in the mountain region, but in climate change. Change as in hotter summers, harsher winters, severe drought in some places, severe flooding in other places, severe weather events (like a Hurricane Sandy), as well as the usual no more glaciers.
Talk about a let down. I do feel a bit betrayed by all this. I mean, I believed them. As difficult as the idea that people can effect something as large and seemingly immutable as the temperature of a planet is, I did try to wrap my head around it. And while I did not go out of my way to educate myself on the subject (I have not seen "An Inconvenient Truth") I did not hide my head in the sand. The least the scientists could have done was be clear about where we were heading. Not the warm paradise of my dreams, but weather on steroids. My only consolation, I never bought an SUV.
