Learning Lessons from the Great Storm

When the Great Storm of 1987 hit the UK, my now ex-wife and I had not long moved up to the Northeast. It troubled us greatly as both our families were down in the area devastated by the hurricane and of course the telephones were out of order. Fortunately, none of our kin were hurt in the storm, but with reports of deaths it was an anxious wait for news.

For me though the most memorable part of the events of that time was that it was the first time that I was able to have a sensible discussion with “Non Environmentalists” about global warming. Until that event, everyone I ever spoke to always dismissed it by saying “Great we get better Weather” or some other nonsense.

While that particular storm may not have been caused directly by climate change, the simple principal of a warmer planet does mean that there is more energy put into the atmosphere to drive the weather systems. This brings me to an article on the BBC web site talking about the lessons that the met office learned from the storm, and the improvements that new and improved technology now plays in more accurate forecasting.

You can read the article here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7044050.stm

However, it’s a quote from Ewen McCallum that really caught my attention.

"It is like if we have a big storm tomorrow, you'll get the same answer out of places like the Met Office, where they will say that it certainly fits with the [future] scenarios, but to blame any one event on climate change is facile.

"It is only when you look back over time and you look at global trends, can you make comments like that."

While what he says is scientifically accurate, the greatest obstacles to persuading people to stop polluting our planet is the lack of leadership from people like him, who could get people to take notice. The science is now clear that Climate Change is happening and that it is man made. Therefore with that extra energy in the atmosphere, the changing climate must be substantially at the root of any dramatic weather occurrences.

The trouble is that there are still far to many people, politicians and scientists among them, that are looking for that magic single bit of data, that single event that can only have happened because of Climate Change, before they will commit themselves. Yet if we wait for that single event proof, we will already have destroyed our home world and our species will be facing extinction.

Even if we stop burning all fossil fuel tomorrow, it will take more than one millennia for our planet to get back into equilibrium.