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Letter to the Editor: Climate change is real

By Jim Sanner, Charles City

Climate change is real. Climate change is also a major player in the resulting global warming trend.

Efforts to minimize the effects of carbon dioxide (C02) and its impact on the greenhouse gas levels in our atmosphere are misleading. Carbon dioxide is the chief regulating gas of the climate atmosphere.

It’s a delicate balance that’s provided for and enabled life on our planet for millions of years. Concentrations of just a fraction of a percent of C02 can make the difference between a frozen planet lacking the warming blanket that greenhouse gases provide or a smothering blanket that can ultimately turn the earth into a world uninhabitable.

Yes, we need carbon dioxide to live. But the amount of C02 human activity has put into our atmosphere has surpassed nature’s ability to absorb through plants and water, primarily our oceans.

Since the early 20th century, C02 levels have risen an estimated 40 percent, based on detected levels of C02 retrieved from ice cores dating back hundreds of thousands of years. It is no coincidence that the rise in C02 levels coincides with the advent of the Industrial Revolution and our reliance on the burning of fossil fuels since then.

Natural forces contribute only a minor amount to the earth’s temperatures. Volcanic activity contributes only about 2 percent of the C02 in our atmosphere. And sunspots have done nothing to change solar energy output over the long term.

The global warming trend is a direct by-product of human activity. As one put it, our fingerprints are everywhere. And effects of global warming have already impacted the poor and marginalized that lack the resources and the options to adapt and cope.

The good news is that responsible choices in our near future can reverse this trend. But we must first admit that we are the problem and summon the will and resolve to make it right. Our future depends on it.

 

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