Global Warming Picnic

We had a week or more of summer in the first week of May this year, while last year at this time it was still snowing on occasion. It was weather that begged for a picnic and so a few of us obeyed.

The weather has snapped back to its more normal pattern, but I can't help but be concerned when it's early May and 80+F in Finland and I read articles like Arctic Temperatures Warming Rapidly Polar Explorer, where a polar explorer describes the extreme amount of melting in the polar ice cap. The Arctic ice  has thinned by 40% over the last 20 years so you have to wonder what the dramatic change in the ice over the past year will mean in terms of climate change. The Helsingin Sanomat carried a story yesterday, Finland's climate may become warmer by up to 5°C, coming in the next 50 years, which would make Finland warmer than most of Southern Europe. Not to be forgotten is the Pentagon report: An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and its Implications for United States National Security. The movie The Day After Tomorrow is being released later next week which will have the effect of making global warming seem like nothing more than an action movie that lasts 2 hours and has the typically happy American ending in spite of the premise for the movie being scary enough to prompt the Pentagon to study worst-case scenarios.

I understand why people don't want to believe in the idea of global warming or dramatic climate change as the consequences are dire, but no amount of optimisim can change the course that nature is on. There has been enough research into past climate changes to support the theory of polar melting initiating a dramatic climate change via gulf stream disruption. It doesn't even need to be dramatic as the very well written, The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850, describes. So, go enjoy the nice weather while it's here since all the evidence suggests that there may be few years remaining where we can.

19 May 2004 at 16:36, Helsinki