The latest piece of news concerning climate change comes from the folks at NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A group of their scientists have been trying to understand why the global average temperatures have not risen as high as would be expected given all the CO2 that has been pumped into the atmosphere.
They found a possible answer about 10 miles up in the stratosphere, where the levels of water vapor have declined by 10 percent over the last 10 years. Less water vapor means less warming.
No one is exactly sure why this has happened but they are pretty sure of two things. First, it won't last forever. Second, the long-term trend of rising global average temperatures due to human activity is here to stay and will likely resume once the stratospheric dry spell eases.
Of course then there will be something else. Seems like there always is when it comes to climate. But the nobody said this stuff was easy, which explains why so many folks are just throwing up their hands and saying "what the heck" when it comes to worrying about climate change. Meanwhile the folks who have a vested interest in delaying the changes to industries that rely on fossil fuel are loving it.
Precisely at a time when we should be taking advantage of this breather that Mother Nature has given us to initiate and accelerate the difficult process of converting to sustainable and greener energy sources, there will be those who will be using the pause as another excuse to put off doing anything.
That means more money today for the industries and technologies that rely on fossil fuels and less money in your pocket tomorrow as the cost of dealing with climate change keeps rising.
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