SATURDAY SUPPLEMENT: Climate Change- but when will 'we' change?

There's an opulent odour of sweet chocolate truffles and the aromatic fragrance of bath bombs emanating from British households this weekend; it's wafting out the letterboxes as the nation's postmen relieve their vans of a burdened load of gift wrap and 'Me to You' teddies. It must be Mother's Day this Sunday.

I wonder how many of us will celebrate the unparallelled supremacy of arguably the greatest Mum of all: Mother Nature? After all, it's the matchless Mother Nature that offers such a diverse array of flora and fauna for us to savour. It's Mother Nature that makes this planet the vibrant yet intriguing place it is and it's because of her dynamism, that we continue to discover new fascinating gems of information every day.

It's therefore a shame that, whilst we offer ribbons and bows to our own mothers, we aren't really giving much of a gift to Mother Nature. Only this week, in the news, the glaciers of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago will undergo a dramatic retreat this century if warming projections hold true. According to the Geophysical Research Letters journal, "the region's ice fields could lose perhaps as much as a fifth of their volume." Since 2003, as a result of a warming world, ice has been "thinning at a rapid rate...at about 70 billion tonnes and is accelerating."

So we return to the heated debate of global warming; pun very much intended here. In my own opinion, and from someone who witnessed first-hand the calamitous effects of a warming planet in Alaska, I ask not what we can do to slow the warming, but just how concerned are we about it. I ask this only because after much delving into my vast collection of National Geographic magazines that this feature regularly returns to, I spot a recurring pattern; decades of disregard, an abandonment of ambition and action, and generally careless negligence on behalf of the world's governments. To back up that latter statement, all I have to do is type one word. Kyoto.

Admittedly, the degree of success we have had to combat any Global Warming, is heavily influenced by the technology available and granted, in the seventies, computers weren't as sophisticated, data loggers weren't as accurate and importantly humans had to do commit to working out their own interpretations rather than to rely on a programme. In the November 1976 issue, scientists were even asking: "Is the world, as a whole, cooling off...or are we instead warming the atmosphere of our planet irreversibly with our industry, automobiles, and land-clearing practises?" With such an indeterminate statement, it's perhaps acceptable that the public couldn't commit to vigorous action; we didn't even know which direction the mercury was moving in our global thermometer. As the article goes on later to say, "Man still does not really know what controls and changes his climate, his daily weather, his seasonal comfort, his year by year livelihood, and the crucial boundary conditions of life." Despite the uncertainty, the article points out that "The question of climate change is no longer just curiosity. We simply cannot afford to arrive unprepared at the doorstep of climate catastrophe."

But we did, didn't we? Turning to an article I've dug from the May 1998 edition, over twenty years later, the first question posed is "How and why does our climate change?" By 1998, the controversy between a warming or cooling planet was perhaps settled, though the editor adds "the debate will rage as long as the evidence is in any way equivocal." For instance, data from satellites and radiosonde balloons indicated a cooling in the lower atmosphere, but warming near Earth's surface, so once again just like in 1976, it's nearly impossible for any united action.

While scientists explore deep into the complexity, the public is left in the dark, and recently it has been more of a case of "Is it too late?" The October 2007 is optimistic in this respect; a stand-first reads: "Global Warming presents the greatest test humans have yet faced. New technologies and new habits offer some promise, but only if we move quickly and decisively."  This glimmer of hope is shadowed somewhat by a gloom of pessimism that casts like a cloud over the body of the text: "No matter what we do now, the warming will increase some. That is, we can't stop global warming. Our task is less inspiring: to contain the damage, to keep things from going out of control."

The challenge to tackle Climate Change is all but inspiring, and it will mean a committed and active effort by all for any progress to take place. As I draw my last National Geographic from the shelf, from September last year, I am aware that, even this week, plans have been unveiled to introduce Global Warming awareness within computer games. Whilst  I have reservations, at least we have accepted the fact that technology can be used for our advantage. But simultaneously, there has to be a 'want' to do it; a genuine will on the behalf of humanity. 

As the article from September 2012 concludes "We need to face up that reality. We don't have to just stand there and take it." And a warming planet is the last gift Mother Nature wants tomorrow!