February 26th, 2013

A student from Parkway Public School sent me a few questions for a project she was working on. Here are her questions and my answers…

  • Do you think we will survive global warming?

Yes! Human beings will be around during and after global warming.  Maybe not as many as now, but certainly we’ll be around.  The problem is that our world after global warming will have more disease, more flooding, more crop failures, fewer plants, fewer animals, on and on.  We’ll survive.  We just won’t have as nice a planet as we do now.

  • Can animals adapt to global warming?

Some will adapt.  Some are very adaptable.  If you are a crow, and you eat anything and you live everywhere, no problem.  If you are a panda, and you only eat bamboo, and climate change makes it hard for bamboo to grow, then you are in trouble.  The more specialized your niche is, the harder it is to adapt.

  • If you had the power to make the laws, what would some of your laws be to prevent global warming?

Well, if I had the power, I would make things that harm the environment more expensive by adding taxes.  I would make environmentally friendly things cheaper by taking the tax off them.  People will change behaviour if they save money doing it.  If gasoline is really expensive, people use less gasoline.  That’s the most important thing, taxing stuff that is bad.  I would tax things that put carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.  Google “carbon tax” to see what I am talking about…

  • If you were an engineer, and your job was to design a car to prevent global warming, what would it be?

I think if you make gasoline expensive, then other engineers come up with creative solutions to moving people around.  Gas in Tokyo is $1.70 per litre, and everyone takes trains all over the place. Necessity is the mother of invention.

  • What is the number one cause of global warming, in your opinion?

We don’t see the Earth as a sacred thing that gives us everything we need.  If we had a little more respect for the life-giving work it does, then we would be less likely to cut down trees and dump garbage in the oceans.

We are also extremely disconnected from our actions and the damage we do.  If you buy an iPhone, you never see the zinc mine in Africa or the chemical plant in China that is responsible for you getting your phone.  If you buy a burger, you never see the trees that got cut down to grow corn to feed the cow that pooped a ton of manure in it’s life.  If someone showed us the damage that we do to our planet just by going about our business, it would make it harder for us to go about our business as usual.

  •  What can everyday people do to prevent global warming?

If you had to pick one thing, eat less meat.  That is something you can control and it’s not that hard.  Meat production is so hard on the planet, and it’s not really necessary.

  • Is it true that in the north, half of the glaciers melting?

I don’t know, but check out our outdoor ed. blog post of pictures taken of the north.  The ice is disappearing.  Very strong visual evidence of a warmer Earth.

http://outdooredguys.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/global-warming-in-two-pictures/

  • What is the more accurate term, global warming or climate change? Why?

Both terms are not dramatic enough.  “Global warming” sound kind of nice, comfortable.  “Climate Change” is something that has always happened.  We need some other phrase that highlights how fast things are changing. Both terms are accurate enough.  No one seems alarmed enough to fix either one though.

As a species we don’t respond well to future threats. If we knew that something was going to kill one person tomorrow, we would take strong action to save that person. If we know something will kill a million people 20 years from now, we watch Wheel of Fortune. Whatever we call it, we need to be smart enough to fix it even if we don’t feel an immediate threat.

  • What is the number one country causing the most global warming?

Overall, China. Per person, the USA.