This has been discussed extensively in the meteorological community for years. Quick background: I thought I would be a meteorologist. Although my career aspiration faded, my geekiness about the weather continued.
The Gulf Stream collapsing would have monumental effects on Europe and the East Coast of the US. Hurricanes and Winter Storms would be even more wildly unpredictable. Here's the problem for me...
I've never truly believed in global warming.
Are we truly arrogant enough as humans to think we can alter the climate and patterns of the planet with gases, etc.? Of course, we are. There are 8 billion or so of us and hundreds of thousands of factories, etc., but that still takes up an insignificant amount of the planet as a whole.
I believe that large cities in the US and worldwide have warmed for one very particular reason: asphalt. Think of all the asphalt in our major cities. They call it an urban heat island, and it can make a city 2C or 5F or more warmer than a suburb with less asphalt and more greenery like trees and bushes.
Concerning Greenland glaciers melting and places like Alaska warming at alarming rates, I firmly believe climate change happens constantly - warmer and colder. We are in a small snapshot of time with our weather record keeping (140 years or so of reliable records), and tree rings can only tell us so much.
The earth's climate will continue to behave as it does regardless of the 1996 Paris agreement. But, we should always strive to clean up the air and emit less carbon to help. The only good thing that the pandemic did was shut down most factories and clean the air in a way it had not been since the dawn of the industrial revolution.
Again, these are my opinions just based on life experience.
The Gulf Stream collapsing would have monumental effects on Europe and the East Coast of the US. Hurricanes and Winter Storms would be even more wildly unpredictable. Here's the problem for me...
I've never truly believed in global warming.
Are we truly arrogant enough as humans to think we can alter the climate and patterns of the planet with gases, etc.? Of course, we are. There are 8 billion or so of us and hundreds of thousands of factories, etc., but that still takes up an insignificant amount of the planet as a whole.
I believe that large cities in the US and worldwide have warmed for one very particular reason: asphalt. Think of all the asphalt in our major cities. They call it an urban heat island, and it can make a city 2C or 5F or more warmer than a suburb with less asphalt and more greenery like trees and bushes.
Concerning Greenland glaciers melting and places like Alaska warming at alarming rates, I firmly believe climate change happens constantly - warmer and colder. We are in a small snapshot of time with our weather record keeping (140 years or so of reliable records), and tree rings can only tell us so much.
The earth's climate will continue to behave as it does regardless of the 1996 Paris agreement. But, we should always strive to clean up the air and emit less carbon to help. The only good thing that the pandemic did was shut down most factories and clean the air in a way it had not been since the dawn of the industrial revolution.
Again, these are my opinions just based on life experience.