Global Warming: Mayhem Yet to Come

The Winter season only started two days ago,  but don’t try to tell that to the millions of  folks living in the Northern regions of   Europe,  North America and Asia who are buried neck-deep in snow.   It seems as if  Mother Nature is intent on reminding the people of the Planet  Earth that global warming has certainly arrived, and is  hell-bent on making its presence  known.  The main reason behind the unusually severe weather is that the atmosphere, warmed by the effect of millions of tons of  human-produced hydrocarbons, is now capable of holding much greater amounts of moisture.  This excess moisture either falls as torrential rainfall, like in the 10 inches of rain that saturated Southern California recently, or as snowfall, like the 90 inches of snow that fell in the Sierra Nevada.  In fact, well before the first official day of Winter, the North-central and Northeastern areas of the United States, Northern Europe, the United Kingdom and Central China were all crippled by near record-setting volumes of snow.
Unfortunately, we inhabitants of Earth are only beginning to experience the long-term effects of global warming.  Summers in the Northern Hemisphere will see a continuation of  stronger and more frequent hurricanes, a greater number of devastating tornadoes, and  higher sea levels on the coasts.  The increasing of the sea levels, brought about by the rapid melting of the polar ice caps and glacial formations, will take the highest toll on humanity due to the concentration of people along the coastlines.  Although it has taken mankind hundreds of years to significantly effect the climate through global warming, it will take only take mother nature a few decades to extract her revenge.  I have little doubt that the 21st century will be characterized as a the century of devastating environmental changes.
The ability of humanity to mitigate the climate changes that are sure to come will depend largely on our success in curbing the use of hydrocarbons for energy.  The coal and petroleum and other fossil fuels that lie within the ground must be replaced with other, non-polluting sources of energy if we are to have any chance at all to slow down the rate of global warming, and to limit the disastrous consequences that are headed down the pike.
Much like the “birthers”, who deny President Obama’s citizenship, there is still a very vocal faction within our country who denies the presence of global warming; even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  Influential arch-conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter have all blamed the global warming crisis as a nefarious left-wing conspiracy, whose only intent is to curb the profits of the giant energy conglomerates, and to advance the liberal agenda.   Fortunately, the ravings of talk-show “entertainers”, such as Limbaugh are falling more and more on deaf ears, especially as the real effects of global warming are felt by millions of people across the globe.   Perhaps when the Atlantic Ocean begins to creep into the ground floor of Limbaugh’s,  Boca Raton,  seaside mansion even he will begin to see the light?
Rich