Snow? What Snow?

This has been quite an unusual winter so far. From what I can recall, we've only had snow once and that was back at the beginning of December. Though a bizarre snowstorm back in the middle of October did hit us, which is incredibly rare to start with.

The temperature hasn’t been as cold as they should have been. Perhaps this is the 'Global Warming' we're being warned about all of the times? This isn't the first time I've heard of such a thing. A few years ago, some scholars and scientists argued that if we don't change our ways, we would transform our climate from 4 seasons cycle to 2 seasons cycle. They said that we wouldn't have spring, summer, fall and winter anymore. We'll have a wet season and dry season instead. In the province of Ontario, the ski resort industry is suffering. If people don't see snow, they don't go skiing. That means no money for the ski industry.

Earth is still a largely unexplored planet. There are so much that we have yet to learn especially in geography and the climates. I do believe that we are contributing quite a bit to the environmental problems even though the water bodies are responsible for a large amount of greenhouse gases but what people don't realize is that we are adding more to it. You see, Earth was supposed still contain every drip of water here from day one but that's obviously not happening here because of the damages we're causing to the ozone layer.

Why the need for politics? Global warming shouldn't be taken lightly and why are people working so hard to 'debunk' these claims? You see, they may be theories... but quite a lot of claims are based on unproven theories. Global warming has been spoken of for decades and it began to get more attention in the last few years in comparison to the last few decades.

In fact, I remember having more snow in the city when I was a child. Much more snow than we get these days. It also used to be much colder. My father told me that when he was a lad, they used to get much more snow and they had public skating sessions on frozen rivers and ponds. We don't do that anymore because they're never thick enough to skate on safely. Now the puddles aren't even being frozen most of the times during the winter the last few years.

Today, I came across an article and it's said that this year will be the hottest year on record. To think that this winter was pretty lukewarm, obviously it's just the beginning.

A combination of global warming and the El Niño weather system is set to make 2007 the warmest year on record with far-reaching consequences for the planet, one of Britain's leading climate experts has warned.

As the new year was ushered in with stormy conditions across the UK, the forecast for the next 12 months is of extreme global weather patterns which could bring drought to Indonesia and leave California under a deluge.

The warning, from Professor Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, was one of four sobering predictions from senior scientists and forecasters that 2007 will be a crucial year for determining the response to global warming and its effect on humanity.

Read more (Source: The Independent)

People have been warned. They need to start taking better care of Earth or we'll pay the consequences which is going to be severe and probably irreversible if we don't do something within a few decades. We don't really have fifty years, it should be now.

From the 100% post-consumer recycled DVD sleeve of 'An Inconvenient Truth', there are ten things you can do to help stop global warming.

• Change a light: Replacing one regular bulb with a compact fluorescent light will save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide per year.
• Drive less: Walk, bike, carpool or take metro transit more often. You'll save one pound of carbon dioxide for every mile you don't drive!
• Recycle more: You can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide per year by recycling just half of your household waste.
• Check your tires: Keeping your tires inflated properly can improve gas mileage by more than 3%. Every gallon of gasoline saved keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere!
• Use less hot water: It takes a lot of energy to heat water. Use less hot water by installing a low-flow showerhead (350 pounds of CO2 saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds saved per year).
• Avoid products with a lot of packaging: You can save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide if you cut down your garbage by 10%.
• Adjust your thermostat: Moving your thermostat down just 2 degrees n winter and up 2 degrees in summer could save around 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year.
• Plant a tree: A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.
• Turn off electronic devices: Simply turning off your television, DVD player, stereo and computer when you're not using them will save thousands of carbon dioxide per year.
• Be a part of the solution: Learn more and get active at ClimateCrisis.net

Did you notice anything startling? Yes, the amount of carbon dioxide we put into the air every year seems pretty startling. But what I found to be even more startling is the amount a tree can only absorb over its lifetime is a ton. That's 2,000 pounds over many decades. Trees live longer than we do. Think about this... there are 6 billion people living on Earth; 300 million in the U.S.A. and 30 million in Canada. It's believed that we put thousands and thousands in pounds of carbon dioxide from our house into the air. By not driving, every mile is a carbon dioxide saved. So imagine a person driving 10,000 miles a year, that's 10,000 pounds of carbon dioxide. The amount of cars out there every second of the day, it's just a big headache to think of how much they are putting into the air. Yet most of us haven't planted any plants or trees in our backyard. Not only that, we are also destroying a large amount of natural forests in order to make room for new commercial and residential zones. So, how are we really preserving the Earth if we are destroying the natural resources to start with?

We are putting an excessive amount of carbon dioxide into the air and we aren't planting enough trees and plants to absorb the carbon dioxide.

I don't know about you but my family recycles, use energy-efficient bulbs, plant trees and plants in both the front and back yard. We even have a green recycling bin for our organic wastes (fruits, vegetables, meat, certain food types, paper towels and more). This isn't the time to get political about our environment. All of us need to wake up and be conscious of the damages we're causing to our planet. We have to think of our future generations and the consequences they will suffer because of our ignorance.

Global warming is real; now is the time to take action and help stop the global warming!