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Homer Tribune, July 21, 2004
Author sees
fossil fuels as
cause of global warming
By Steve Kadel
Homer Tribune
The amount of
carbon dioxide in
the air at Barrow has increased steadily and is a symptom of
significant
climate change, according to scientific measurements.
‘There’s only
one reason it’s
going up — we’re burning fossil fuels across the earth,” Charles
Wohlforth said
Friday during a lecture and slide show at
Land’s End
Resort.
Carbon dioxide
has jumped from
330 parts per million in 1973 to a current level of 380 parts per
million in
the Arctic Ocean village, Wohlforth said. The Anchorage
author said that, in turn, has led to warmer air temperatures, melting
sea ice
and rapid growth of shrubs across the North Slope.
“We know that
carbon dioxide
warms the environment,” he said. “Why would it not have an effect?”
Wohlforth’s
recently released
book, “The Whale and the Supercomputer: On the Northern Front of
Climate
Change,” charts the issue from the perspective of arctic Natives with
firsthand
experience as well as scientists conducting computer-aided
investigations.
Arctic Natives
around the world
have adapted well to climate change in the past, Wohlforth said, and he
believes they can do so again. Barrow whalers, for example, are
countering the
larger waves caused by reduced sea ice and melting permafrost by using
bigger
boats.
While human
residents of Barrow
deal with problems such as erosion, warming weather also affects arctic
animals, Wohlforth said. He mentioned a study of the Canadian arctic,
where
polar bears — which can only feed when on ice — are becoming thinner
and have
higher mortality rates among cubs.
“The problem is,
there are still
only a few scientists studying the effects of climate change on
wildlife,”
Wohlforth said.
An audience
member asked the
author what he would do to solve global warming. Wohlforth’s quick
response
drew applause.
“I’d immediately
switch our
fossil fuels industry to a hydrogen industry,” he said. “Move to that
hydrogen
economy as fast as possible. The people who are now making money from
oil could
make even more.”
Wohlforth said
it is heartening
that many people throughout the world are starting to deal with the
problem of
climate change, working to reverse it in ways they can manage.
“Unfortunately,
we’re behind in the
U.S.,”
he said.
Meanwhile,
Wohlforth’s
appearance in Homer coincided with release of a study in the journal
“Science”
indicating oceans have absorbed almost half of the carbon dioxide
released by
industrial activity during the past 200 years. The article said changes
in the
ocean chemistry could be a long-term threat to corals and shell-forming
marine
life.
That’s the
conclusion of
research by oceanographer Christopher Sabine of the National Oceanic
and
Atmospheric Administration and his colleagues. Sabine suggests the
oceans have
capacity to take on more carbon dioxide for thousands of years, but
marine life
will be impacted much more quickly.
A companion
article by marine
chemist Richard Freeley of NOAA’s Seattle-based Pacific Marine
Environment
Laboratory also appeared in the journal. His research indicates the
buildup of
carbon dioxide in oceans, and its resulting decrease in the water’s
alkalinity,
“can potentially have significant impacts on the biological systems in
the
oceans in ways we are only beginning to understand,” according to the
article.
Mollusks, corals
and
single-celled creatures that depend upon seawater for developing their
shells
are particularly at risk, Freeley said.
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