The climate change hoax

So much heat is generated by the debate over climate change it’s a wonder there’s any ice left at the poles at all.

The truth is, something is wrong and the evidence keeps mounting.

The latest comes from the Polar Year Survey, which found that ice at both the northern and southern ends of our planet is melting at much faster rates than expected.

The Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica, for example, is moving 40 percent faster than it was  in the 1970s. The Smith Glacier is moving 83 percent faster than it did in 1992. The study also found that the Greenland ice sheet is declining much faster than expected.

Some 10,000 scientists contributed to the study, which also found that year-round sea ice in the Arctic during 2007 and 2008 decreased to its lowest level since satellite records began three decades ago.

All those who, since the 1850s have looked for the northwest passage? It’s here.

Of course there are those who believe climate change is a hoax. These are often the same people who believe that evolution is a hoax — that we are just as God created us 6,000 years ago — and that the Apollo moon landings were staged on a secret movie set.

Then, there are those who believe the climate is changing, but that it can be blamed on sunspots, or cow farts, or the earth’s normal cycles. I won’t say they’re completely wrong.

But the way I look at it, you can choose to believe what you want to believe, or you can listen to the experts. And the overwhelming majority of the world’s reputable scientists agree that climate change is a fact.

Even the scientists of coal-dependent energy companies, which have everything to gain by a look-the-other-way attitude, say carbon emissions from human activity are a significant contributor to climate change.

So, where does that leave us?

If you read some of the news, it’s already too late to do anything about it in our lifetime. The changes we’re seeing now may have begun during the Industrial Revolution, when smokestacks went up like mushrooms after a rain. It may take 200 years to undo what we’ve done.

Do we really want to? How about the countries that will benefit from warmer growing seasons? Can Greenland grow corn one day? They won’t want to turn back the clock.

How about coastal areas that may be inundated by rising tides? Will Savannah have a different opinion?

This may be the most difficult task we have had since we became human some — er, 6,000 years ago. To think not about our grandchildren, but  our great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren.