Turns out the first prediction about global warming was delivered by Columbia University geoscientist Wally Broecker in 1975, buried in the pages of the journal Science. Broecker’s projections of atmospheric carbon dioxide increases over the next 35 years have been almost spot on, as have his predicted temperature increases.
His calculations have been supported in the decades since by volumes of independent findings and modeling, and one respected physicist says that if you continually dump CO2 into the atmosphere, there’s no other possible outcome. Untrained though I am, I arrived at the same conclusion in the early ’80s when I pondered the process of combustion and its effect on the atmosphere. When you burn something, not only do you release carbon dioxide into the air, you consume oxygen. Do this on a global scale, and the balance of atmospheric gases is bound to change.
Despite being a no-brainer, a stubborn contingent of deniers on the right continues to drive us toward environmental catastrophe by insisting that global warming science is a hoax. How they can keep doing this boggles the mind, considering how obvious it is. It’s far easier to understand how burning carbon-rich materials affects the atmosphere than how a wing creates lift, yet we take for granted that airplanes fly.
It’s frightening that such stupid people as Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann are vying to become president of the United States. Despite the economy and joblessness in the US, there is no more pressing issue than global warming.
Liberal Buzz 