Editorial

More to climate change than 'going green'

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Somehow -- perhaps it was the success of former vice president Al Gore, his Oscar and Nobel Prize for his film, "An Inconvenient Truth" -- going "green" is all the rage these days.

A lot of it is simple capitalism; retailers tend to create whatever image will help improve their bottom line. Some of it is extremism, such as PETA's call for all of us to become vegans, or offering a million dollars for the first person to create artificial meat in a test-tube.

Hype and contention aside, there are things to be concerned about, according to no less an authority than the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

According to a NOAA release:

* The global land surface temperature was the warmest on record for March, 3.3ºF above average covered much of the Asian continent. Two months after the greatest January snow cover extent on record on the Eurasion continent, the unusually warm temperatures led to rapid snow melt, and March snow cover extent on the Eurasion continent was the lowest on record.

* The global surface (land and ocean surface) temperature was the second warmest on record for March in the 129-year record, 1.28ºF above the 20th century mean of 54.9ºF. The warmest March on record (1.33ºF above average) occurred in 2002.

* Although the ocean surface average was only the 13th warmest on record, as the cooling influence of La Niña in the tropical Pacific continued, much warmer than average conditions across large parts of Eurasia helped push the global average to a near-record high for March.

* Despite above-average snowpack levels in the U.S., the total Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent was the fourth lowest on record for March, continuing a 20-year trend accredited to higher temperatures.

When the "green" fad has faded, as it probably will, we'll still be faced with making the tough decisions that will be best for the long-term state of our planetary health.

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