Its coming…and real fast!!!

For those of you who watch National Geographic regularly, you may have watched a program some days back that was titled-‘The Big Freeze’. I happened to watch it by chance…. ofcourse since then I’ve thanked the transport team endlessly for having missed my name from the cab roster and given me the opportunity to utilize the extra hours watching something valuable that has helped me enhance my knowledge.
As I surfed the T.V channels to search for something worthwhile, Nat Geo caught my attention. Being the nature lover that I am, I feel rather drawn to watching programs on Discovery and National Geographic. That day, what made me stop at this particular channel was a picture of a frozen city. Every part of the city was covered under a blanket of ice, it looked abandoned and I must add eerie in a sense. Feeling intrigued by that picture, I decided to watch on. What I saw for the next half an hour left such an impact on me that I haven’t stopped thinking about it ever since and here I am, trying to leave a teenie – weenie bit of that mark on you.
We’re all aware that the climate of Earth has undergone several changes before finally settling into something that is comfortable and that has encouraged the survival of mankind. They call this the ‘Interglacial’ period. While the last ice age hit us thousands of years ago, scientists predict the next ice age to settle in far sooner than you can imagine. It jerks you out of your comfort zone to imagine that there is a possibility that this warm climate that we have been enjoying since time immemorial is going to come to an end with sheets of white throwing us into oblivion. Let me share with you the most relevant theory that Nat Geo brought to light for explaining the speeding of the Ice age. Ironic as it may seem, the phenomenon linked closest to this explanation is ‘Global Warming’!! That took you by surprise didn’t it?? It had me gaping at the screen for a couple of seconds trying hard for it to sink in – ‘Warming’ can cause ‘Cooling’???
Anyway, here goes the explanation in the words of Terrence Joyes and Lloyd Keigwin, Senior Scientists- “In order to balance the excess heating near the equator and cooling at the poles of the earth, both atmosphere and ocean transport heat from low to high latitudes. Warmer surface water is cooled at high latitudes, releasing heat to the atmosphere, which is then radiated away to space. This heat engine operates to reduce equator-to-pole temperature differences and is a prime moderating mechanism for climate on Earth. As the ocean waters are cooled in their poleward journey, they become denser. If sufficiently cooled, they can sink to form cold dense flows that spread equatorward at great depths, thus perpetuating the circulation system that transports warm surface flows toward high latitude oceans.” This is called the ‘Great Ocean Conveyer.’
The ‘Great Ocean Conveyer’ is a big contributor in maintaining a stable climate and in ensuring that the heat is distributed evenly throughout the planet. However, over the past few years, scientists have noticed a slowdown in this belt. Global warming has been causing the glaciers in Arctic to melt, hence forcing tons of fresh water into the ocean. Fresh water being less dense does not sink to the bottom of the ocean. Since the circulation system is maintained by cold water moving towards the equator and warm water towards the poles, the cold water movement has slowed down, hence leading to an overall slowing down of the Ocean Conveyer. If the Ocean Conveyer was to come to a halt, there would be no heat distribution at the poles eventually leading to a ‘Mini Ice Age.’
I could never imagine that the oceans are responsible for maintaining a stable climate in such a big way. It has truly made me stop back and think, will the coming generations really get a chance to see our planet the way it has existed for us…we’ve led to the near extinction of so many animals, felled trees and substituted the lush jungles with concrete ones, played with the law of nature, encouraged the release of harmful gases into the environment, lost our civic sense and dirtied our surroundings, wasted electricity and water, encouraged the use of plastic bags and polluted not only our cities but the planet altogether. Is this really what we want our children to grow up and look forward to?? I shudder at the thought of even giving birth to my child in a world where we’re ensuring that the future only spells ‘Disaster’.
The question that confronts us then, is, “What can ‘I’ do to contribute to a healthy environment?” While it may look like a mammoth task – stopping global warming, here are some of the simple yet effective ways-
1. Replace the standard light bulbs with energy efficient
fluorescents
2. Drive less-whenever possible walk, bike or carpool
3. Unplug your charger after use
4. Plant a tree!!!!

That can’t take much can it??? While it may sound a tedious task, replacing all your light bulbs or walking when you know the car stands in your garage, look at the difference ‘WE’ can make to the environment if each one of us took up this cause. The pieces of the World will automatically fall in place if we made the effort to put ourselves together. We can plant a tree can’t we??? Are you still waiting????

~ by Ankita on August 4, 2007.