Opposition, to climate change science facts, is growing as the president adds more and more naysayers to his cabinet. He is deleting scientific evidence published in government documents and shrinking the Environmental Protection Agency.
On balance and after the president’s threats to abandon the Paris accord, State officials and many corporation heads across the country declared their intention to conform to the obligations defined by the Accord.
What may be even more alarming is a total disregard by the Administration of facts about the phenomenon of ozone depletion above our heads in the atmosphere. The protective ozone layer keeps our weather in check and much of the planet at a habitable temperature. Ozone depletion is caused largely by us and not volcanoes, animals and other lesser causes.
Without any help from the administration we humans can do our part to help slow the destruction of the ozone layer. First we must be aware of what is causing the depletion. The fact is that primarily, carbon dioxide and methane are the main culprits.
So what exactly are we humans doing that produces these ozone depleting gases? We operate gasoline engines, burn fossil fuels and maintain herds of large methane producing animals, among many more things.
So let’s look first at gasoline engine cars and trucks. Many drivers are unaware that their engines are less efficient and burn much more gasoline as the speed of the vehicle is increased. Driving at speeds of 75 to 80 miles per hour or more, produces much greater volumes of carbon dioxide than is produced at 55 to 65 miles per hour. Think of the many millions of engines running around the world right now.
As the ozone layer is depleted, air temperatures increase melting polar ice caps exposing deep beds of undersea decaying organic material that produces prodigious amounts of methane. Also naturally occurring methane is unlocked and escapes as the ice melts.
Animals we keep for food, like meat and milk, also produce huge amounts of methane in their voluminous amounts of excrement. Humans do so as well. Humans are the only animal that consumes milk after infancy, yet we consume prodigious amounts of meat, cow milk and cheeses every day.
Note that methane increases above are shown to now exceed carbon dioxide increases.
We could make a dent in global warming if we drove cars and trucks slower and ate less beef and milk. That would reduce the cattle herds and reduce the methane generation. Likely few would subscribe to those horrible behavior changes. Just think, less red meat. And more horrible than that we would have to poke along driving at the speed limit.
Of course climate change, that is the direct result of the destruction of the ozone layer will occur relatively slowly over several decades or a century, but increasingly during our lifetimes as the destruction of our planet occurs we will find that our lifestyles will involuntarily be changed.
Arable land will give way to deserts. Food will be difficult to grow and Incidents of famine will slowly spread around the globe. Increasing migrations of humans moving away from flooding coastal cities, the tornado ravaged countryside and the increasing heat of the equatorial regions will bring about radical social changes. War, both local and globally will be fought over diminishing potable water supplies.
But hey, we humans are adaptable; we can handle these changes, so why disrupt our comfortable lives right now. Let’s wait and see. Let’s just go on living the way we are and hope someone, not us, will fix the planet before all those terrible things happen and living on this planet becomes less comfortable. If you accept that I have a bridge in New York I'll sell you.