Stopping climate change requires proactive steps

I am writing to respond to the Jan. 23 editorial on climate change by Caitlyn Slivinski. Ms. Slivinski is correct when she says that there are "other factors besides humans that contribute" to climate change.

The Earth is a complex system and we know for a fact that climate fluctuates naturally with glacials and interglacials occurring at intervals of 100 thousand years.

We also know that there have been other natural abrupt climate changes caused by events like the Mt. Tambora eruption and the Younger Dryas, a sudden glaciation most likely a result of the slowing of North Atlantic deepwater formation. Not a single climate scientist disputes the fact that there are natural climate changes. Climate scientists know with great certainty that when past climate changes occurred, the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere also changed.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, a panel of scientists from all over the world charged with assessing climate change science and making reports for policy makers, found in a 2001 report that in the 20th century there has been a large scale warming of the earth's surface.

This corresponds to the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide over the last century that is caused by people, most of which is due to the use of fossil fuels. Ms. Slivinski points out that global warming "may challenge us to come up with a new, possibly better way to live." She is absolutely correct.

We need to find a new way to live and we need to find this new way to live before we change the climate too much more. Many of the top climate scientists in the world believe that we are within a decade or so of the "point of no return," after which we may not be able to reverse any climate changes we have caused.

Climate scientists are now studying more drastic ways of dealing with warming, including purposefully causing a nuclear winter and injecting particles into the stratosphere.

Climate change is something that every-one should be aware of and take seriously.

Could we sit around and think up benefits of climate change? Sure, but what about all the consequences? If you consider how many people were displaced by the flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina, just think about how many people in just the United States could be displaced by sea level rise or increased hurricane intensity.

This is in addition to entire nations in the South Pacific that would no longer exist. Consider how many people suffer from lack of food due to droughts in Africa and fighting over arable land. Did you know that with increased temperature, droughts are likely to increase and it is likely that more land will likely become desert?

I could go on and on about the possible consequences, but I will not. Instead I would like to invite the readers and writers of The Greyhound to a seminar on the "Health Effects of Climate Change."

The talk will be given by Cindy Parker, M.D., from Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health Preparedness and will take place on Friday, Feb. 9 at 3 p.m. in Donnelly Science 075.

After hearing what she has to say, we will all be able to agree that the consequences of global warming will far outweigh the benefits.

Running around like Chicken Little is not the way to deal with climate change. A better reaction would be to learn more about the issue and act for change.