Green Early Warning Systems
Where are the Green Early Warning Systems?
I was a kid in the 50′s when air raid drills and “duck and cover” were the norm. There was something about air raid sirens that continues to invade my nightmares. This isn’t just a test of the early warning system, we need ear piercing air raid sirens to blast suburbia awake over the coming global warming disasters.
Victor Mobilae
There are a few artists and designers who put out their global warming early warning devices, like this one by Designer Rene van Corven from the Netherlands. Called the “Victor Mobilae” which is a mobile garden that moves 65 inches north each day, apparently representing the speed to which global warming might cause vegetation to adapt northwards as the climate shifts. No doubt this art piece is well intentioned but it seems a bit benign, almost celebrating the happy gardens the frozen north will soon be blessed with. Those chilly Eskimos will be soon able to add some peas and carrots with their walrus blubber.
The truth about the consequences of major rapid climate shifts couldn’t be more scary. In this Washington Post article about how million of acres Canadian forests are at extreme risk from climate change, where the Mountain Pine Beetle is killing off the pine trees.
Even more frightening is the peril of permafrost melting. Vast areas in the frozen Russian tundra, bigger than the size of Texas, have in the past three to four years begun to melt. Thousands of little puddles, ponds and lakes have started to form. Many areas of permafrost used to support telephone poles, machinery and buildings but with the melting going down as much as a foot or more, has made many such structures unstable.
If that doesn’t scare you enough, then consider the other concern about methane gas in our atmosphere, that there are huge numbers of what is called clathrates, basically ice-like structures of frozen methane in the bottom of the seas. Satellite photos apparently show massive chimneys of methane bubbling off the sea bottom. Oil companies are looking in exploiting this as a potential new energy source, according to a Wired article – “More energy is trapped under the sea as frozen natural gas than is stored in all the world’s oil reserves” If the ocean temperatures continue to rise we may also have to start worrying about these methane clathrates melting and releasing vast amounts of methane-potentially more greenhouse gases than all the human-generated greenhouse gases combined. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Why aren’t we hearing more of this in the mainstream media? Where are the early warning sirens?
Here is a good link to the climate hotmap site that maps out some great information on global warming hotspots and is an interesting read.
