|
|
$PEAK
|
|
||
Re: In a sea of bad news, good news for LACThe effects of climate change are much greater the further north you go. Here in the western Canadian prairies we continue to enjoy our non winter Winter. Yes we did have a polar blast in December but we enjoyed a much milder Fall and January experienced just two to three days of winter. (Over now as the truly mild weather returns and settles in again) When I came to Alberta in 1978 and saw my first February her and then the next winter in 78/79 my girlfriend and later to be wife said encouragingly that I had not seen a real Canadian winter. She kept reminding me of this as I struggled to learn and enjoy driving through blizzards and icy glazed roads and shivered in the spells of 40-50 below weather outbreaks. There were plenty of winters that were bitterly cold - even in the 80s. Now as I look back I see that the winters for these past 30 years are nothing like they used to be. Nothing at all. Yes - we do get the odd polar vortex that takes us to the low 30s or high 20s (Celsius) below zero - and sometimes these things settle in for two weeks like they did in December last year. But this is nothing compared to the 70s and sixties - especially if my wife is to have been believed - and thousands of older prairie folks too! The most striking visual reminder is seeing just how far the legendary Columbia ice field glaciers have retreated up their valleys over these past forty odd years! The athabasca glacier by the ice field parkway (highway 93) between lake Louise and Jasper is a famous tourist attraction and that glacier is just a ghost of what it once was. The areas that used to be covered under towering ice is now walkable and just rocky moraine hummocks. The change in the weather patterns here in Alberta are absolutely staggering. They are ongoing and they are unceasing and they are not part of any natural cycle. All the known natural cycles would be conspiring to make this region gradually and irregularly colder - and that trend has been broken for the past 40-50 years at the barest minimum. As each year unfolds - we get the odd cooler summer and the odd hotter one. We get winters with colder longer polar outbreaks and shorter ones with milder interludes. But taken a decade at a time moving from the past into the present - the trend is dramatic, unmistakable, and steadily trending warmer. As we say in the Oyel Patch - “This is no bullshit!” The closer a person gets towards the earths equator the more imperceptible are the changes - but the changes are still there in the most precise and reliable records. North of us - above the Arctic circle and 60 degrees latitude north - both here in the Canadian territories and in Siberia the changes are extremely dramatic (and concerning). Global Warming is not some “woke” illusion - it is measurable, quantifiable and it is absolutely real and understood. It is something that the military are preparing for, the extractive mining industry looking at with renewed avarice, the cruise ships exploiting to their profit and the inhabitants viewing with alarm as the very foundations of their existence is changing alarmingly, threateningly and irreversibly. This is no illusion nor any joke. This is as real as it gets. GS |
return to message board, top of board |
Msg # | Subject | Author | Recs | Date Posted |
62352 | Re: In a sea of bad news, good news for LAC | Relaxx | 2 | 1/31/2023 2:10:22 PM |