By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
In an effort to raise awareness to the global warming/climate change debate, the Crawford Park District hosted a program on the sometimes controversial topic Thursday night.
During the program four video clips were played with discussion after each..
Park District Director Bill Fisher explained why the Park District put on the program.
“I do feel that it is important that as a Park District people look to us for environmental information, and this one is a touchy issue for a lot of people, but it is such an important issue to everyone globally that we bring it to the surface,” Fisher said. “To pay attention to the science of climate change, and think about not how it is affecting them personally at the moment, but what it is going to do for future generations.”
“There’s a lot of emotional issues involved and hopefully we can encourage people to think about that on a personal level and pay attention to the facts,” Fisher continued.
The first video took the approach at what hinders people about climate change statistics. Factors included political affiliation, economics, and psychology.
“It’s tough. I know I’m in a group of people that should be yelling about it. On the political side if you agree with climate change, and are Republican, it is like you are hugging Al Gore,” Fisher explained.
The second video pertained to what is causing the Earth’s average temperature to rise. The video went through 24 tidbits about climate change such as the increase greenhouse gases in the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide, deforestation which absorbs the carbon dioxide, as well as the amount of methane in the atmosphere that has increased over the last century.
The video also discussed that the most extreme changes in the climate would occur in the oceans predicting that the sea level will rise by one meter if conditions continue at their current rate.
“One of the things I felt was interesting to in the facts how everybody points to ‘well scientist can’t decide,’” Fisher said. “But when you survey scientists, it is pushing 97 percent of academia science professionals when you ask them, they are saying ‘yeah it is real it is occurring and it has a lot to do with human activity.’”
The third video was a clip was from an episode of Nova in which scientist James Balog studied the regression of the ice flows. During the video Balog noted that in the last year alone the Columbia River has lost a half mile of ice. The video noted that the average temperature along the Alaska Glacial Range had risen four degrees in the last 40 years.
Joseph Blum said that in his trips to Alaska, as well as Europe he noticed changes from in the amount of ice in between trips.
“In Alaska the glaciers are melting at a super-fast rate. It is unbelievable the last couple of years they show you where they were and it’s just going backwards,” Blum said. “When flying over the Atlantic Ocean in the summer you used to see ice bergs. Now you don’t see them. You fly over Iceland and Greenland and it is not there.”
The fourth video which was the Discovery Channel documentary “Global Warming: What You Need to Know” with Tom Brokaw.
The video clip featured climatologists discussing the history of climate changes in the world and comparing the current rate of change to past climate changes.