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April 4, 2006

Journalist Elizabeth Kolbert: Climate Change Will Be 'World-Altering'

A roomful of science people pressed forward as journalist Elizabeth Kolbert tapped her microphone March 23 at Seattle's Town Hall. The author of last spring's three-part series* on climate change for The New Yorker readied herself to share firsthand observations of how humanity's actions are already reshaping the planet's landscape.

The most dramatic changes, she said, are happening in the Arctic.

Kolbert met geophysicists and chemists in Alaska and Greenland as part of a quest to find out how serious a problem climate change really is. "Like a lot of people, I kept waiting for this story to be resolved," she said.

Now she says the fact that some still question human influence as a cause of climate change is "really comical, or it would be if it weren’t so scary."

Evidence of change is clear: Flowers open up a week earlier in New England. In the Northwest, the snowpack is melting 10 days earlier than it did 50 years ago. The year 2005 broke hurricane records. Lots of carbon is stored in permafrost that's starting to thaw. Kolbert said permafrost scientist Vladimir Romanovsky told her, "[Permafrost] is like a ready-use mix. Just add a little heat and it will start cooking."

She said people who say they're skeptical that human actions are the cause of climate change are either guilt-ridden, on a payroll or simply uninformed. "Fully 25 years ago, the changes we’re seeing were predicted by climate modelers," she said. So why is there still denial? "Problems that are hard to solve are also hard to acknowledge."

Recognizing the seriousness of climate change is even harder for those who don't interpret scientific graphs or models, since the effects of carbon loading today won't be apparent for several decades. "If it’s so bad," Kolbert said reluctant believers convince themselves, "I’d be feeling it by now."

Other than a few oil-producing states in the Persian Gulf, she said, the United States is among the biggest producers of carbon dioxide. Future generations will have to bear the negative consequences of our choices today, and for no particularly good reason.

Her concluding tone was dire. "I could end this talk by telling you to turn your lights off and save the world, but I’m not going to end that way," she said. "Climate change is going to be world-altering. I don’t mean inconvenient. I mean change in life-altering ways."

*You can read the articles, "The Climate of Man," here: I II III Interview

Here's a recent Wired Magazine article on Kolbert's message.

Posted by Dipika at April 4, 2006 5:55 PM

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