Baker Speaker

The speaker tonight at Baker was not super-lively. He was not speaking in a hellfire and damnation manner about the problems facing the Earth. Instead, he methodically and purposefully communicated a vision of Earth's future. Through what has clearly been an extensive body of research he outlined some major changes to the structure of our planet that will be occuring and many are not very far away if our current practices continue. He stressed that these issues are commonly referred to in reference to the next generation inheriting a problem but that in reality, it is not "just are children's problem." He outlined the difference between natural influences and human influences. He said that natural influences do affect the earth but that is not at the root of the current trend in greenhouse gases and their effect on the earth. In one of his 100 year projections he predicted a drastic effect on earth. The last time a climb like this occurred the earth's temperature increased by 3 degrees Celsius, which he said would have our planet looking very different. 

He did a great job explaining how we can rule out natural warming of the earth. He pointed to the fact that night temperatures are still rising, ruling out any solar variability. He pointed to ice as a main indicator for the changes. He spoke of a scary concept regarding tipping points. He thinks we are near the threshold of warming and melting where we could be past the point of no return, or in other words have done irreversible damage to the point where even a drastic change in our practices will be obsolete.  In regards to the ice as indicators he said that the new technology is a powerful tool and makes reading the patterns much easier. Some of his before and after glacier visuals were very powerful.

He noted that in 30 years there might actually be no glaciers left in glacier national park. Loss of glaciers at this rate, he said, could drastically affect our water supply. His ethos was on display when he took the view of skeptics who point to the natural ebb and flow of the earth's temperatures and glacial patterns but quickly noted that these recent patterns are outside this realm. His main research focused on glaciers and I like the term he used for their telling of the situation. He called glaciers, "the canaries in the coal mine," in that they are a great first indicator of how things are going to get bad.