This week, its time to get serious, yes I needed to put on the college, university hat and let you fine people know why the weather is getting to be so extreme nowadays. I can sure tell you, that living in Alberta for the last 6 years, is living proof of that! I mean in just one month alone in our fair city of Calgary, we have experienced rain, golf-ball size hail, flooding, tornados, twisters,intense heat and yes even snow! So why are these extreme weather patterns happening now, not only here, but in other parts of the world. For the answer to that question we need to look at "Global Warming"
Those 2 words are such a catch phrase these days, "Oh it happened because of Global Warming, right? What exactly is Global Warming then?
Now to start off with it is a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth's atmosphere. This in turn, is attributed to the "Greenhouse Effect" causing increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons along with other pollutants. This would be both land and water as well as temperature.
When I was growing up, the earth experienced increases in temperature by results of normal causes. Today it is being created by the accumulation of greenhouse gases produced by human activities.
Global Warming is affecting many places around the world as well. It is accelerating the melting of ice sheets, glaciers and perma frost. This in turn, causes average sea levels rising continually. It is also changing precipitation and weather patterns all over the world. Some areas are now drier, with more intense periods of drought. Now even other places are wetter with stronger storms, increased flooding and hurricanes.
In 2005 Hurricane expert Kerry Emanuel published a startling analysis. This showed that the power of Atlantic Hurricanes had strongly increased over the past 2 decades. The number of record-breaking hot months around the world is now 5 times as big as it would be in an unchanging climate.
These anomalies have affected both nature as well as human society. They will continue to have increasingly worse effects if greenhouse emissions continue to grow at their same pace. So then what really causes Global Warming.
Basically, it is the increasing quantity of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere being produced by humans. The burning of fossil fuels and deforestation are prime examples. These activities are definitely produced by large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. They trap heat in the earth's atmosphere keeping the planet warm enough to sustain life itself. It is a natural process and without these gases the earth would be too cool for humans, plants and other creatures to live.
The natural greenhouse effect exists due to the balance of the major types of gases. However when abnormally high levels of these gases accumulate in the air, even more heat gets trapped. Human-caused emissions have increased greenhouse levels which increased world wide temperatures driving global warming.
The majority of man-made carbon dioxide emissions occurs from the burning of fossil fuels. These include coal and oil so that humans can power various mechanical vehicles, machinery, keep warm along with electricity. Other important sources come from land-use changes (deforestation) & industry (cement production)
Methane is used in livestock farming and rice farming as well. Unfortunately, it also occurs in landfills throughout the world.
Nitrous Oxide emissions are mainly caused by the use of synthetic fertilizers for agriculture, fossil fuel combustion and livestock manure applications. Fluorinated gases are used mainly in refrigeration, cooling and manufacturing applications as well.
Deforestation has become a massive undertaking by humans thus transferring forests into farms and industrial sites. For centuries, man has burned and cut down forests to clear land for agriculture. This has a doubling effect, both emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and simultaneously reducing the number of trees.Trees usually remove carbon dioxide from the air as well.
In conclusion, the effects of Global Warming range from increased melting of snow and ice.Sea levels continue to rise, longer winters occur, hotter summers evolve, stronger hurricanes, cyclones, and tornados are created with even more increased flooding.
Wow, pretty deep huh, okay on a lighter note is another excerpt from when Carol and I were caught driving through a forest fire in Montana,enjoy and have another great week!
The next day on our way to Missoula Montana to do a switch with the frozen load of beef, I was hauling; we ran smack dab into a massive forest fire! As I was driving I immediately saw this sign that said “Fire Activity Ahead, No Stopping.”Nonetheless, this huge “big ass blaze” we were driving right through, seemed to go on for miles as I rolled down the interstate. They called it the Sapphire Mountains, along with the fact it was pretty much engulfed in flames as I drove the I-90 West Corridor. The weather here in this area had been unseasonably hot with temperatures well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Everything around us was very tinder dry, so any spark would go up like a match stick, furthermore we could see that it had. As “Beauty” rolled down the highway, you could easily see large portions of land swallowed up by large beads of fire up the mountainside.
On the other side of the road, we could see even more flames peaking their ways through spark covered trees and brush. Both Carol and I were watching the “Helicopter Water Bombers” fly by us to douse various areas of the fire when she was still filming our whole adventure on the “Jazz Video Camera.”
“Well now I can say we drove through a forest fire right my Brin,” Carol said to me.
She was true to her word, as there was so much thick gray smoke that day that it actually blocked the sun as we drove down the interstate that day. When we made it to this “Mom and Pop” truckstop just outside of Missoula, there was a mix-up in loads, so where we were heading never materialized. Things don’t always go as planned, so I ended up going down with a load to Akron Iowa as usual to the Dial yard. The following week we pretty much ended up getting loads from “Calgary” to places in Colorado, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and North Dakota.
Although there was something that happened on one of our trips down to Portland Oregon that was definitely worth mentioning. I had just picked up a load of beef destined for a place down in Portland that escapes my mind at the moment. Nevertheless on our way there, we parked overnight at a Walmart that was just in the city limits of Pasco Washington. Carol was doing her usual shopping, but I was going to stay in the truck to watch some DVD movies. I guess she didn’t want to be in there all morning because of that Carol wanted me to help her out with the grocery shopping. Well when we both went into the store, she needed to get a new watch as her’s had pretty much stopped working. So she went over to look at watches and I followed her, but this time she suddenly stopped at the rings on display in a large glass case. I went over to where she was, and she seemed to be looking at this rather inexpensive set of wedding rings! She told me that she really liked this exact set that was silver of course. She asked the sales clerk if she could try it on and so the young lady obliged her request. Carol looked and me with this sly look and I glanced back at her. Somehow we both knew the answer to the question I should have popped would be yes. Next thing she asked me was to try on the silver band with cubic zirconias in it. Again when I tried it on, it just seemed to fit like a glove.We gave each other a kiss on the lips and that was it, we were engaged, October 9, 2007. Maybe some of you reading this might think that I was cheap to spend a mere $200.00 on an engagement set, but you have to understand who my Carol really is. Carol was definitely not the type that wanted me to spend 2 months’ salary on something that she would put on her finger. In fact, if I ever did such a thing her reaction would be more to the fact we could have spent that on new furniture, or saving for the down payment on a house. That’s who Carol was, and probably always would be, as material possessions were not that important to her as the true love, kindness, friendship and caring of a true man is. That small but very important gesture instilled into her my utmost commitment to her so one day she would become Carol Lee Wade. There was no date set, no wedding planned after that morning either, Carol was just at peace knowing that I committed to staying in her life from there on. In fact, nothing more was even said about it, as we just knew we would be with one another until death or my infidelity separated one of us.
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