In 2 days time I will be flying to Salt Lake City to go skiing, as I often have most winter and spring breaks. What troubles me is what has been very noticeable in the more recent spring breaks: the snowpack is more melted and temperatures are way above normal. Last year I did not have to envy my friends who went to the various beaches of North America because temperatures in Salt Lake in the middle of March were approaching 80 degrees fahrenheit! It was nearly 60 degrees on the slopes and people were out in t-shirts!
As I prepare now to head to Salt Lake City again to go skiing, things are not looking too much better for this year either. Having spoken to my father and checking weather reports, it was another far above average temperature February, and March is not due for a cold spell anytime soon. I guess the silver lining for me at least is that I failed to book a beach vacation again this year, but looks like I will still have beach weather to look forward to!
Looking at the larger picture here, I recall an article I enjoyed back on February 17th by David Roberts, who wrote about how the decisions we make today could reverberate for millennia. He talks about how all of the climate models we analyze today go out to the 2100 century mark and then stop. He suggests that they do not go out far enough, and that the amount of CO2 we have already released into the atmosphere and all of the resulting changes to the climate already will be irreversible for thousands of years.
So the real problem here is not just bad snow years and sad spring breaks for skiers this year or the next, or sadly, even the next hundred. The sad reality is we have yet to comprehend that we may never know the Earth we live in now for thousands of years to come! Maybe thats partly why I am so eager for my break to begin, who knows how many more spring breaks to come will be like this one. Or it could be that I am excited to be done with class, but I am still leaning more towards my first thought!
Sean,
I like how you related your journal submission to an Article you read by David Roberts. When you state that Roberts claims that the climate models we analyze only go out to about 2100, this is actually very compelling. I have never actually thought about this perspective of whats going to happen in the future. This notion makes me wonder whether there are environmentalist that have began this journey of discovering what the future climate will be like, if there’s even going to be one…
Have fun on your spring break trip. Thanks for sharing with the class, it was a pleasure to be your classmate this quarter.