Climate Change

Commentary By Ron Beasley

This is why we need to call it Climate Change not Global Warming.

Canada frosts the most widespread in recent memory

The multiple frosts that have blanketed Western Canada in the last week are the most widespread in the top canola-growing province of Saskatchewan in at least five years, the Canola Council of Canada said on Tuesday.

Two overnight frosts last week have already resulted in some Saskatchewan farmers reseeding their canola, a Canadian variant of rapeseed, said Jim Bessel, senior agronomy specialist in the province for the industry group Canola Council.

As we pointed out here global warming/climate change does not mean it gets warmer everywhere.  Global warming may well result in in a new Ice Age.  But here is another reason we should call it climate change.

Scientists: Global warming has already changed oceans

In Washington state, oysters in some areas haven't reproduced for four years, and preliminary evidence suggests that the increasing acidity of the ocean could be the cause. In the Gulf of Mexico, falling oxygen levels in the water have forced shrimp to migrate elsewhere.

Though two marine-derived drugs, one for treating cancer and the other for pain control, are on the market and 25 others are under development, the fungus growing on seaweed, bacteria in deep sea mud and sea fans that could produce life-saving medicines are under assault from changing the ocean conditions.

Researchers, scientists and Jacques Cousteau's granddaughter painted a bleak picture Tuesday of the future of oceans and the "blue economy" of the nation's coastal states.

The hearing before the oceans subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee was expected to focus on how the degradation of the oceans was affecting marine businesses and coastal communities. Instead, much of the testimony focused on how the waters that cover 70 percent of the planet are already changing because of global warming.

Ocean acidification or diseases that thrive in acidified, oxygen-depleted seawater could be responsible for oysters not reproducing in Washington state, said Brad Warren, who oversees the ocean health and acidification program of the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership in Seattle. A federal study found that two-thirds of larval blue crabs died when exposed to acidity levels like those currently measured off the West Coast, he said.

The increased CO₂ has already resulted in a slow death for the oceans which are a major food source for a large number of people. Of course the NH₄ based fertilizers have not helped.

The planet is warming.  Much of that warming is currently being absorbed by the oceans but the climate is being impacted.  More tornadoes, not more but stronger hurricanes.  More floods and more droughts. Colder in some places warmer in others and in some places both.  Climate Change!