As Alice Mathias points out in "Awk-oholics Anonymous" (Jan. 27), "'The Weather' is the boring-est subject of conversation conceivable." Agreed. Unfortunately, with my awkwardness (I am, after all, the founder of the "I'm Too awkward For the 'Holy Sh*t, I'm awkward!'" Facebook group), the weather comes up all too frequently in my conversations.
Lately, however, the weather has been a common subject of discussion among even the less awkward members of the campus population. Hanover averaged 8 degrees Fahrenheit above the mean, exceeding it on three out of every four days in January. While Floridians, the permanently cold and other winter-haters rejoice; skiers, ice-climbers and hardy DOC members complain about the abnormally high temperatures of the past month. Regardless of your personal viewpoint, this weather aberrance should serve as yet another reminder of a pertinent issue of concern that is all too often pushed to the back burner: global warming and other human-induced forms of climate change.
The recent Hanover heat is not an isolated phenomenon, but rather a manifestation of a disconcerting worldwide trend. According to United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the average global temperature "increased by 0.6 plus or minus 0.2 degrees Celsius over the 20th century," while "El Nio-related events became more frequent, persistent and intense during the last 20 to 30 years compared to the previous 100 years," and the global sea level rose by one to two millimeters annually. These data represent only a few climate changes that have contributed to the general increase in frequency and severity of extreme weather, including stronger mid-latitude storms, increased likelihood and extent of droughts and floods, "more intense precipitation events" and heat waves.
However, the above figures appear to be too abstract for the American public and, even more sadly, for the U.S. government. It is unfortunate that it takes disasters like Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to truly focus attention on the problem of worldwide climate change. According to an American Geophysical Union survey, only 24 percent of Americans were significantly concerned about global warming in 1997.
By contrast, in a Fox News poll conducted in 2005, 60 percent of respondents thought that global warming was either a crisis or a serious problem. Even so, only 46 percent attributed the phenomenon to human influences rather than to natural patterns.
The federal government exacerbates this problem of misinformation. One climate expert reported in 2004 that the "Bush administration is trying to stifle scientific evidence of the dangers of global warming in an effort to keep the public uninformed" (Associated Press, Jan. 27, 2004). Yesterday, another climate scientist was told by NASA officials that he would suffer "dire consequences" if he were to make public his disconcerting findings about global warming (Telegraph News, Jan. 30, 2006).
Keeping the public at bay by retaining information enables the government to perpetuate its inaction and lack of interest in climate change, as exemplified by its ongoing refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Washington's inadequacies in dealing with environmental concerns have even been acknowledged by state leadership. In 2003, twelve states, three cities, an island government and a number of major environmental groups issued a joint legal challenge in response to Bush's failure to address greenhouse gas emissions -- a major cause of global warming.
It seems that the administration would rather deal with the consequences of global warming than attempt to prevent them. Perhaps government officials simply prefer to rebuild ruined cities than invest in their protection from devastation in the first place.
It is unlikely that the U.S. government's treatment of environmental concerns will change appreciably before the next election, so it is up to individuals to help reduce the rate of global warming. Some simple but effective courses of action include more efficient use of transportation, a reduction of energy consumption and waste creation and more environmentally-friendly consumer habits. Although each individual's contribution may be very small, a collective impact of 296 million people would be significant.
Become more conscious of climate change and more active in helping to manage it. Start by talking about the weather more frequently. If you feel like that is just too awkward, you can find comfort in the fact that even the so-not-awkward band The Postal Service express their "concerns about the world getting warmer" in their 2003 hit, "Sleeping In."
