Not looking for a political argument. I need facts. I am in no way a climate change denier, but I had a conversation with someone who told me the average increase is only 2°F over the past 100 years. That doesn’t seem like a lot and would support the argument that the climate goes through waves of changes naturally over time.
I’m going to run into him tomorrow and I need some ammo to support the climate change argument. Is it the rate of change that’s increasing that makes it dangerous? Is 2° enough to cause a lot of polar ice caps to melt? I need some facts to counter his. Thanks!
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What most people fail to consider is the thermal storage capacity of water. It is the ideal medium for storing heat. It takes 4 times as much heat to warm it up than concrete. That means it’s very slow to increase in temperature, and very slow to cool down. What is most of the earth covered in? Water.
Why do coastal areas have milder temperatures than inland? Because water maintains the temperature stopping rapid changes. It takes a long time to warm up the oceans, but once we do, it’s doing to take a long time to cool them off.
2° might not seem like a lot, but when it’s in the volume of the ocean, that’s a lot of stored energy. That causes expansion of the water and melting of the ice. It takes a lot of energy just to melt ice into water. Until it’s all melted, there isn’t much temperature change. Once the ice caps are melted, the ocean temperature can rise rapidly.
There are a lot of economic reasons to deny climate change. The fact the oceans are buffering any noticeable temperature increase makes it difficult to argue. But the increasing ocean temperatures are already showing signs of change with increased hurricanes and tropical storms. The temperature extremes of climate change are fueled by subtle changes in ocean temperatures.
2° is a small increase but it’s taken an extreme amount of energy to get us there. And it’s going to accelerate.
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