Lest readers conclude I’m just another conservative Republican blogger, let’s take a look at global warming and climate change. President Trump has called global warming a hoax, reversed environmental policies and taken the US out of the Paris climate accord, which is a worldwide effort to halt the planet’s warming. GOP leaders label climate change “fake science”, a U-turn from the platform of 2008’s Republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/us/politics/republican-leaders-climate-change.html
Admittedly the science is complex. Nevertheless, the scientific consensus is human activity is causing climate change. Many more Democrats believe the scientists, compared to Republicans. If you want to look at the partisan politics of climate change, here’s one article: http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/10/04/the-politics-of-climate/
Without being a scientist, let’s try a common sense approach to this important topic. World population is currently estimated as 7.6 billion as of October 2017. The United Nations estimates it will further increase to 11.2 billion by the year 2100, 47% more people. Does anyone doubt that people cause pollution and a lot more people means a lot more pollution? One-third of the world’s landmass is currently forest. Between 1990 and 2015 it is estimated 1.3 million square kilometers of forest were lost, an area larger than South Africa. Since 1900, the estimate is a loss of 10 million square kilometers. Does anyone doubt that forests reduce CO2, affect climate, preserve fresh water and provide livelihoods, in addition to sheltering and sustaining millions of diverse plants and animals? https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/five-forest-figures-international-day-forests
Does anyone doubt the glaciers are melting and shrinking? Is it reasonably to believe that increased severity and incidents of natural disasters are the result of climate change? I have to be blunt here: If you deny that global warming and climate change are real concerns, you’ve lost your common sense. We all need to insist our government act now to address the problem or our descendants will pay a severe price. Greedy self-interest and short sighted policies will doom our planet.