I'm torn. The part of me that despises winter is appreciating the mild weather and happy that it's rain and not snow. However, there is a bigger part of me that is very worried about global warming. I'm sad for the polar bears. The polar icecaps are melting at an alarming rate. We have a great book for the kids called Polar Bear, Why Is Your World Melting. It simplifies global warming for children to understand. Our family is one that does their part to help the environment, but there are so many people who don't think it's important.
I completely understand how people who live in NE Ohio don't think global warming is all that bad if we're just getting mild winters. However, we're also getting ridiculous summers. It's so hot we can't go out. Then there's the allergy and bug factors as well. Monster's allergies were awful this year. His allergist said most people's were. Since the winter was so mild, it didn't kill off a lot of allergens. The bugs have also been bad this year. Again, the mild winter didn't kill them off. I'm shocked how people don't find these things related. Then there's TX, which got more snow this year than they had ever seen.
I think people are confused about what global warming actually does. To simplify it, it messes up the weather. It causes droughts where it used to be wet. It causes floods where it used to be dry. It increases disease and insect infestation. It's not just about it getting warmer. This year, Arctic sea ice was the lowest since records began. Since 1979, Arctic sea ice has declined at a rate of 13% per decade. In 2000, the largest single block of Arctic ice began cracking. It had been around for approximately 3,000 year prior to that. By 2002, it had split completely in half and is now breaking into small pieces. Permanent ice caps are shrinking at a rate of 9% per year. Permanent. That means they are supposed to stay around. Want a really scary fact? If it continues at this rate, summers in the Arctic could be ice free by the end of the century. That's our children's life times.
With polar ice cap melting comes a rise in ocean waters. Sandy. Katrina. Those names ring a bell. And then there's the horrible tsunamis. I don't think people fully understand the impact humans have on the environment. If you're a true bible person, you could just chalk all these events up to being "God's wrath". He's purging the sinners. I remember people saying this about Katrina. New Orleans was a place of sin, so God was wiping it clean. I don't believe in that. I believe that we humans did contribute to these events, but not because we're sinners, but because most people just don't want to take the time to take care of the earth.