How to Fight Climate Change

Climate change is real.

Earth's #climate is driven primarily by the #sun and our relationship with it. Milutin Milanković showed this in his work studying the cyclical nature of climate and our relationship with the sun, known as Milankovitch cycles.

In the #geosciences, we see evidence of this throughout the geological record. Perhaps most notably, #geologists specializing in the #Quaternary #geology of North America have observed the effects of rapid #globalwarming over the last 20,000 years. In that short time period, massive continental ice sheets several kilometers thick have melted, causing sea level to rise over 120 metres, separating #Alaska from #Siberia, #England from #Europe and #Australia from the rest of #Oceania.

This change is amazing to think about, and it happened in the blink of an eye. The USGS has published maps on the changes in coastline, and it is amazing to think about how quickly things changed, and how recently this happened. This map by the Geological Survey of Canada really tells the tale of the #Laurentide Ice Sheet retreating...at a very rapid pace. Much, much more ice than the #Greenland ice sheet melted in just a few thousand years. The ice sheets that still exist on Baffin Island are just remnants of the Laurentide, and it should surprise no one if they are also gone in a thousand years or so.

The Laurentide, #Cordilleran, and #Scandinavian ice sheets all melted very rapidly and completely without human influence. What's left of them is still melting, as we are now at the tail end of the last glacial maximum.

Just think about this: at the time the #Sumerian and #Egyptian civilizations were forming, an ice sheet larger than Greenland covered northern #Canada and sea level was much, much lower. #Chinese civilization was established and underway when Canada was still mostly covered in ice.

Of course we #humans want to think that we are at the center of everything. But we are not. We need to be more humble, and see ourselves as part of a much larger system.

Adopting this more humble approach will allow us to change our perspective on #climatechange so we can start fighting it properly.

In this more humble approach, we need to understand is that the climate will change whether we want it to or not.

There is absolutely nothing we can do to change obliquity of the earth's tilt relative to the sun, which varies between 22.1° and 24.5° over a cycle of about 41,000 years.

There is absolutely nothing we can do to change the eccentricity of our orbit, caused in large measure by the gravitational pull of Jupiter and Saturn.

There is absolutely nothing we can do to alter axial precession, caused by tidal forces from the sun and the moon.

There is absolutely nothing we can do to alter apsidal precession, again caused by the gravitational forces of Jupiter and Saturn.

So if we can't change these climate drivers, what should we do to fight climate change?

Use #energy. Lots of it.

Make sure the energy you use is reliable and dependable and available at the highest energy density and in the greatest possible abundance.

Use dependable energy sources like #oil and #naturalgas, #coal, #nuclear and #hydro. Avoid expensive and unreliable sources of energy like #wind and #solar.

Use energy to stay warm if it's cold.

Use energy to stay cool if it's hot.

Use energy to put satellites in space so we can see hurricanes long before they hit land.

Use energy to get away from extreme weather.

Use energy to help others impacted by extreme weather.

Use energy to provide health care.

Use energy to help humans live longer, learn more, and stay healthy.

Use energy to deal with the climate.