XENIA — Global warming is a subject that causes people to ask a lot of questions. When scientists inform the public that humans are causing global temperatures to rise, one of the first set of questions is:
Hasn’t global temperature always fluctuated? After all, the glacial grooves at Kelley’s Island prove that Ohio was once covered with ice. Something caused that global cooling, and when the ice age ended, something caused massive global warming – and none of it was humans. So why the concern about global warming now? Isn’t it likely that the warming is natural and not caused by humans at all?
“These are all great questions, and the public deserves answers to them,” said Thomas W. Blaine, Associate Extension Professor with Ohio State, who will be speaking in Greene County on November 13. “The way that I structure my presentation brings a lot of satisfaction to audience members who do not believe these kinds of questions have been adequately answered or explained by the scientific community. I present a history of earth’s climate, explaining why temperatures have fluctuated so much in the past. We go over the era of the dinosaurs, the ice ages, you name it, we cover it. It turns out that audiences just love learning about Earth’s natural history – it’s a lot of fun.”
Another set of questions goes like this, “Hasn’t Earth been much warmer than it is now for most of its history? If that is true (and it is), then why worry about a few degrees warming in the next 50-100 years?”
“Again, the fact that Earth is currently in an ice-house as opposed to its normal condition of a hot-house, is something that I carefully explain in my presentation. How these changes came and went is something on which I focus as well. It answers a lot of questions people have. This is important, not only because it clears up a lot of the confusion about what is at stake now, but it also gets people interested in science.”
The host for the presentation is Greene County Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Trevor Corboy, also of OSU Extension. Please consider joining us for a very fun and informative program on climate change and how it may affect you on November 13 at the OSU Extension Greene County office. To register, please visit greene.osu.edu or contact the office at 937-372-9971.
