Climate change and the debate about its occurrence

Are there still a few doubting Thomas-es out there? I know there still are a lot in the world today, despite the mounting evidence in support of the occurrence of a climate change.

I have read a newspaper article that lists this year's summer as the third warmest around the North Pole - 2007 being the warmest of all.

Hence, some have been led to believe that the global warming phenomenon has been on a paused mode because of the relatively cooler weather this year but have warned that things could get worse in a few years to come when the atmosphere begins to heat up again.

I will just dwell on my own insights from personal experience and the recollection of certain news items around the world - other than the self-explanatory recent storming of the rooftops of the British parliamentary building by Greenpeace protesters.

I first noticed that things were not as they should be in our local weather system about a decade ago.

The initial indication was given by the late coming of the follow-up rain after the first rain showers of the year in February that usually washed away the dust of the end-of-year cold and dry Harmattan winds - corn farmers without some form of irrigation system suffered a big loss because their crops had no water to grow.

Then came the biggest surprise of them all: it rained heavily on Christmas Day in my home town - village actually!

It had cooled enough in the normally dry, dusty and windy harmattan weather to precipitate rainfall! Perhaps, we should worry more about global cooling?

That had never happened before in all the jubilees of its regional existence. That much was confirmed by everyone's mental recollection and the available records, if any.

Just this year, the beginning of the first half of the Rainy Season was shifted by a whole month, from the end of May to the end of June.

Do you remember the two news items over the last few years about UN Secretary-General Ban making it a point of duty to visit the polar regions where the icebergs were melting in the polar ice cap?

Well, I do. Even this year, as it happened in the past two years, the Northern Sea Route through Siberia became navigable during the Summer - even the Amundsen Channel was amused enough to open up, while Parry's simply parried all attempts to be ploughed by any icebreaker, Russian or otherwise.

And I also recall seeing an article about the result of a research study predicting a rise in the sea level along the eastern coast of the United States.

Finally, did Mr. Al Gore not co-win a Nobel peace prize in the fall of 2007 for his timely, if a little over-dramatic, warning about the inconvenient truth regarding global warming?

One of those truths is probably this: there is no way that a climate change bill could be passed in America before December, when a global scale negotiation on a climate change treaty will begin in Copenhagen in Denmark.

So, what do you think about all these? Are you going to take climate change more seriously now? Spread the word...

And, if you still have any nagging doubts and just want concrete evidence for climate change, all you need to do is witness the winter snowfall in autumn in Germany and Poland - and elsewhere in Europe, save Britain, as shown on CNN on Tuesday, or two days ago.

For a more tropical example, you should have experienced the torrential rain (in October!) on Wednesday, or just yesterday, in Lagos in Nigeria - it began before dawn and ended an hour after midday and I remember my wife saying something about it raining 'cats and dogs', while I preferred to exaggerate it to 'elephants and tigers'.





UPDATE - Thursday, October 29, 2009:

The ultimate proof for the global climate change phenomenon came yesterday during the third group stage matches in the ongoing thirteenth edition of the FIFA under-17 World Cup in soccer at various football stadia in Nigeria.

Can you believe that two international matches were held up by the pouring rain - in October - at two different venues on the same day after only twenty minutes of playing action?

Well, it happened at the Calabar and Enugu venues. In Enugu the pitch was so soggy that the artificial turf was reported to have floated on the water!

What I saw on the television screen was the South African referee throwing the ball into a drenched patch in the field and the puddle of water grabbing the rolling ball like a magnet - it was time to stop the 8:00 PM - local time - match between the soaking wet lads from Turkey and Costa Rica.

Of course, the rain delay had a knock-on effect on the other matches in the competition because one of the teams had to travel to Calabar the next day for the next group match - another unexpected climate change nightmare for the local organizing committee...