OP-ED: Global Warming Needs Urgent Response Now

By Thomas O. Mills
OP-ED: Global Warming Needs Urgent Response Now

 Scientists are using the shifting of Earth's poles to measure climate change: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24755-earths-poles-are-shifting-be...

The breaking news, in my mind, should be “CLIMATE CHANGE HAS CAUSED THE EARTHS POLES TO SHIFT”.

The NewScientist article, from Dec. 13, 2013, notes that in one year Greenland has lost 250 gigatonnes of ice, mountain glaciers have lost 194 gigatonnes of ice, and Antarctica has lost 180 gigatonnes of ice.

A gigatonne equals 1,000,000,000 tons.

We can debate what causes global warming and climate change, whoʼs at fault, how many jobs will be lost, how much money it will take to fix the problem, and point fingers at each other all day long. 

The truth is our small planet has lost at least 624 gigatonnes of ice in the last year alone. The loss of this weight has caused the location of Earth's poles to move. Not the magnetic poles -- but the actual location of the poles. If we lose another 624 gigatonnes of ice this year, how far will the poles move? How many gigatonnes of ice are there? How many more gigatonnes can we afford to lose before the earths rotation and delicate balance is in real trouble?

The movement of the poles has changed the flow of the jet stream. The change in the jet stream has caused storm, rain, snow, and wind patterns to change. This change causes floods in some areas and droughts in others, temperature swings, seasons to change. All of these changes affect our food supply, plant cycles, our drinking water, our civilization.

All this ice turning into water causes sea levels to rise, islands to sink, cloud patterns to change. With warmer ocean temperatures we can expect stronger hurricanes, tsunamis, higher tides, and fish populations dying or moving to cooler water located at the poles. These changes will effect millions of people now, and many more in the future, worldwide.

The only debate we should be having at this time; is where and how soon the meeting, between the most powerful and creative minds, from all countries, all people, all around the planet, will come together to find a solution and correct the problem. Money, power, wars, might not matter, in the end.

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Thomas O. Mills lives in Paso Robles, California and is the author of "The Book of Truth, A New Perspective To The Hopi Creation Story" and "Stonehenge, If This Was East". For David M. Kinchen's review of  "The Book of Truth" click: http://www.huntingtonnews.net/9165  HNN book critic Kinchen commissioned him to review a book by a Native American writer, Michael "Hawk" Spisak; for the review,  click: http://www.huntingtonnews.net/39967