I saw a somewhat clever–and instructive–quote the other day: “More Americans have been married to Kim Kardashian than have died of Ebola.” While the nation’s media have been swept up in a frenzy over Ebola (and the frenzy isn’t limited to the media; President Obama the other day created a position for an “Ebola Czar”), lost in the noise was the news that the year 2014 is on track to be the hottest on record. And, assuming the record is set, it probably won’t last very long: Jeff Masters, meteorology director for the private firm Weather Underground says that, with another El Nino on the way, “next year could well bring Earth’s hottest year on record, accompanied by unprecedented regional heat waves and droughts.”
Another aspect to the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases that gets little attention is the effect on the oceans. These enormous bodies of water serve as “carbon sinks,” sopping up much of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In so doing, however, the oceans become more acidic. And the concentrations of mercury increase. According to a 2009 study led by researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey and Harvard University, mercury levels in the northern Pacific Ocean have risen about 30 percent over the past 20 years and are expected to rise by 50 percent more by 2050 as industrial mercury emissions increase. Some of that mercury ends up in fish, and some of that fish is then eaten by people around the world (and for many people, fish are their primary source of protein). Canned tuna accounts for 28% of Americans’ exposure to mercury.
I was celebrating the birth of a friend’s new grandchild the other day, and it dawned on me that that little girl will likely live to the 22nd century. And then I found myself pondering the sort of world that that child’s grandchildren will inherit. Climate change is not an abstract threat with the potential for some vague threat at some indeterminate time in the future. And if the world doesn’t act collectively soon, the planet will be a very different place in 100 years.