Page 8 - Nebraska Report Nov Dec 2020

What’s HOT in Global Warming?

by Professor Bruce E. Johansen

Donald Trump and Earth’s Existential Crises

Goodbye, Donald J. Trump. Goodbye, to this problem about 25 years ago, just about everything on which daily
and to hell with you, literally. “Lock most of this was theory with warnings life depends. I’ll offer an illustration,
him up!” from forward-thinking scientists such courtesy of NASA’s wonderful eyes in
I’m not saying this just because as James Hansen of NASA. Now, it’s the sky (see adjacent graphic). This is a
he is a coarse, small intellect… An obvious: witness wildfires choking map of South America with precipita-
ugly man utterly lacking decency and Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, tion patterns highlighted. Please notice
respect for the Earth and all of the Sydney, and many other places, just in that precipitating winds are coming out
plants and animals to which it gives the last year. To Trump, global warm- of the west, upslope along the Andes,
sustenance. That’s part of it. The real ing is still a joke, a “hoax” (one short giving the west coast an abundance of
story here, though, is that we are now word in his meager vocabulary he em- rain and snow. The west-to-east wind
up to our eyeballs in existential crises. ploys for many things that he doesn’t pattern then descends along the moun-
And riding in a car with Donald Trump understand). Poetic justice requires an tains (let’s mess with Donald’s mind
and his cronies is like speeding at 200 F-5 tornado to roll over Mar-a-Lago. I and use a scientific term: “adiabatic

One of these existential crises, of course, is
climate change—usually the subject of this

column. If you have been traveling with me for
any length of time, you know why raising the

levels of greenhouse gases (carbon

dioxide, methane, etc.) in our atmosphere
is a slow-motion death sentence.

miles an hour on a crowded freeway in would offer Trump a major hurricane, flow”), drying and warming, producing
the wrong direction. but that would also wipe out many desert conditions and fires. Meanwhile,
One of these existential crises, other houses north and south of Mar- the west coast, usually a desert, gets
of course, is climate change—usu- a-Lago. A tight F-5 tornado on a direct flooded out. Hey! an informed observer
ally the subject of this column. If you path, descending and ascending at the might say, this airflow is running back-
have been traveling with me for any right times, might teach Dum Dum ward. And indeed it is. Global warm-
length of time, you know why raising Donald a little climate science. ing messes with atmospheric air flow.
the levels of greenhouse gases (carbon This one does not reverse itself all the
dioxide, methane, etc.) in our atmo- The Pervasive Nature of Climate time, but often enough (influenced by
sphere is a slow-motion death sentence. Change El Nino and La Nina) to have a major
When I first started paying attention A changing climate messes with effect on South America’s weather.
By now, I’m sure that my imagi-
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 NE REPORT, P. 8 nary Donald Trump would be squirm-