Global Warming, Are We On The Right Track? 

Was discussing this hot issue with a couple of friends, none of who were scientists or environment experts. Global warming is surely the bad boy of our times. Too much rain blame it on global warming, too little rain also gets blamed on global warming. Knee deep snow fall and global warming has a hand in that problem too. Violent weather changes, too hot or too cold and scientists catch global warming by the collar once again. So what are scientists doing these days? With everything being blamed on global warming, it seems that no more effort needs to be put into research.

Here are my thoughts, and they are something that has been worrying me for long. Whenever there is an abnormal rainfall, (too much or too little), abnormal snow fall or even temperature swings, science blame global warming. Having done that, they analyze the situation and try to make their claim believable. The report is then circulated to the developed nations, who immediately blame the developing countries in Asia. In this interestintg article we take a dig at some issues related to global warming.

 

The God knows syndrome:  Remember when you were a kid, mama yelled TOM, where is TIM? You were obviously busy trying to get on your bicycle and yelled back, 'God knows'! Those were the old days, there was at least someone who knew about everything that we did not, that was God. It did not stop at home, God helped office staff too. You might have heard things like 'God only knows, when this report would be done'!.

Go back a few centuries ago when man did not know how rain happens. People had no idea why the sun was so hot. They attributed all this and everything else to God.

Comes the scientist: It does seem logical to think that scientists evolved from philosophers! The world saw some great thinkers, philosophers who spent most of their day thinking. They were said to have inquisitive minds and always kept one word on their lips, it was 'why'. Why does rain fall, why does snow not fall in Sri Lanka etc. Philosophers thought and thought, they kept their mouths shut. If you had to communicate with them, you would first need to wake them up.

Then came a different category of philosophers, these guys thought and convinced themselves with some reasoning. They then talked about their theory and findings. They spoke on T.V, they reported in newspapers, they wrote huge books. The days of the scientist had officially dawned.

Mister know all: Global warming is just one of the many things that scientists claim to fully understand. Having invested time, energy and probably money on researching global warming issues, they now want ROI (return on investment). This is business jargon, you invest resources in something and you must therefore get tangible returns on that investment.

With scientists on earth, God has been reserved for temples and heaven. After all, a scientific explanation for something automatically takes off any credit or debit, that was until now given to God for the same thing.

A scientist will very rarely admit that he does not have a logical or scientific explanation for a particular occurence. When you have some violent climatic changes, it is very likely that man's present knowledge of the universe does not have an answer to that occurence. Scientists could over simplify things and blame it all on global warming!

We will soon have to admit that, the practice of labelling almost every natural occurence on global warming will dampen the interest in research that seeks to find actual answers. For example, a severe earthquake that occurs in a previously safe place could also be blamed on global warming! 

Climate study:  Long before the term 'global warming' became a fashion, climatic conditions like heavy rains that resulted in destructive flooding and even droughts that caused lands to parch, were explained in an interesting way.

You would hear things like, the northern eastern winds were quickly moving clouds across the Asian subcontinent. This was given to be the cause for massive rains and stormy conditions. There was a warning for fishermen and the local administration stationed men on the shores, with thick ropes to pull anyone being washed away by the waters!

Jump ahead to today and the reporting is different. The news reader gets mentally charged, cuts back and forth to some melting ice capped mountains tens of thousands of miles away from the flood site. You might then see a dozen well dressed guys sitting in the conference room of a 5 star hotel in Switzerland. These guys are supposed to be deciding the future of global warming and labelling the poorer or developing nations as culprits! In the backdrop of the meeting room could be a huge banner, that says something like 'Global Warming 2010!'. The cameraman then zooms to the champagne glasses as the participants raise their glasses, cheers!

Earthquakes: This is one natural calamity that is outside the realm of global warming. It is a boring topic that no one really wants to talk about. The newsreader gives you figures, the intensity of the earthquake, the higher the reading on the richter scale, the more vociferous the campaigns for collecting relief funds. The number of people who died in the earthquake, images of how they suffered just before they died, might be useful for making Red Cross posters. The number of dollars in damages caused by the earthquake, the number of people left without food and water. In many cases this number is fairly close to the number of people living in the affected area without proper food, water and shelter even before the earthquake.

Is it possible that the drying of the land beneath broad roads and huge constructions, pushes the destruction caused by an earthquake in a wider area? When earthquakes cause landslides or bring huge rocks tumbling from barren mountains, something that can cause large scale loss of life, is it possible that deforestation should share part of the blame?

The reason for writing this article on global warming is to warn the experts. A warning that says that blaming everything on global warming could be an over simplification.

Remember that the world started with a bang, the bang is still unexplained. Could the world end with a bang too.

Could it just be that the world has an 'expiry  date' and we are nearing it?

The movie 'Day After' stirred serious interest in Global Warming. Have you noticed that the frequency and magnitude of natural calamities has increased since the movie was released?

Could the load of massive constructions across the globe cause the earth to snap under the heavy weight?

Is global warming just becoming a fashion? Are we forgetting things like protecting forests?

The questions are many, the answers never simple or complete. This article is like a drop in the ocean.

Your comments are welcome, email us at easyrambler@rocketmail.com We should not leave the future of the planet in the hands of a few scientists, as it belongs to all of us. Let us question theories, let us not give up efforts made to protect the environment in the past.