Text 2The climate is changing the thing is, it isn

Text 2

The climate is changing — the thing is, it isn’t just due to humans

By Tonya T. Neaves

1 Natural forces beyond human control are also gradually affecting our climate. These geophysical forces are vital to understanding global warming. Man is indeed responsible for a large portion — possibly even a majority — of global warming. But also in play are complex gravitational interactions, including changes in the Earth’s orbit, axial tilt and torque. This fact needs to be included in the public debate. Because these gravitational shifts,

5 occurring over millennia, can influence climate patterns and ultimately lead to noticeable variations in seasons. Interestingly, research suggests climate change can alter the tilt of the Earth, but an unrelated change in tilt can also further change the climate. It is a balance-counterbalance relationship. Changes in seasons can also affect other types of storms, including severe winter snowstorms and tornadoes. The variations in the Earth’s orbit are known as the Milankovitch cycles — after the Serbian geophysicist Milutin Milankovic, who hypothesized this

10 phenomenon in the 1920s. He discovered that variations in the Earth’s path around the Sun, axial tilt and torque could together affect our climate. Even a slight change or orientation in the precession of the Earth’s rotating body can cause a wobbling effect shifting torque in different areas since the planet is not a perfect sphere to some people’s surprise. Now would seem a particularly apt time to act. The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season was an intense, record-setting period. With several landfall hurricanes barreling their way through the Caribbean and

15 Gulf of Mexico, devastating parts of the Leeward Islands and United States. Still, even President Donald J. Trump has implied the whole of idea climate change may just be a hoax. Most Republicans seem to agree that it is not a serious problem. Meanwhile, while some Democrats have tried to use the frequency and intensity of storms in the hopes of highlighting the climate change conversation, even this effort has seemed muted. The heightened culture of disaster only feeds our attention on political banter and ideological semantics with no room for informed

20 decision-making. Though climate change is inevitable, we also need to have a healthy appreciation of the fact that climate shifts aren’t just limited to rapidly changing weather patterns. Turning the corner into unexplored territory is always difficult. By having a broader sense of communal resiliency — social, political and economic standing — we can manage this unavoidable pendulum of climate extremes.

Adapted from: THINK - Opinion, Analysis, Essays in: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/climate-changingnot-just-because-humans-here-s-why-matters-ncna824271 [Accessed on March 10th, 2023].

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