By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Staff Writer
We’re learning more and more about the changing climate, and one researcher thinks it’s time we started acting on the information.
Michael Glantz, in Honolulu last week for a pair of talks, is a senior scientist specializing in climate impacts at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.
He feels that Hawai‘i and the rest of the world are missing the boat if they don’t begin planning as soon as they get climate warnings.
El Nino events are the best example. Climate scientists are now able to warn the public of an upcoming El Nino — which in Hawai‘i can mean winter drought and stormy hurricane seasons — earlier than any other weather-related event, he said.
"El Nino information is really useful because it provides the earliest warnings they will be able to get in climate-related issues," he said.
It can warn people in South America that wetter weather is coming, so they can switch from planting cotton to planting rice, or vice versa, he said. Unfortunately, the leaders of most nations don’t take climate information into account when they make plans for their countries.
"It pays to pay attention to climate information. I’m just trying to get climate information on the agenda," Glantz said.
He concedes it may be necessary to focus on teaching children, so they’ll do the right things when they’re running the world. The adults aren’t getting the message.
"Right now, governments know the climate-related problems they have, but for one reason or another, they don’t respond," he said.
Glantz is author of a book published in December, "Currents of Change: Impacts of El Nino and La Nina on Climate and Society."
He said there is still lots to know about even such heavily studied issues as El Nino.
"We’re in a learning curve about El Nino. Every El Nino since the 1970s has surprised physical scientists, because we haven’t seen all the ways it can express itself," he said.
Glantz takes the controversial position that there may be some positive features among the doom scenarios most people associate with global warming.
Some arid areas may become suitable for farming, for example, he said. But the most important changes are negative.
Glantz says that while there remain doubters about human-caused global warming, scientists are increasingly moving into the column of believers.
And if there is one climate statistic that to Glantz is most telling, it’s melting ice and corresponding rising seas.
"The thing that worries me the most is the glaciers retreating. They are, everywhere. ... If the sea level rises, there are no winners, only losers," he said.
Jan TenBruggencate is The Advertiser’s Kaua‘i bureau chief, and its science and environment writer. You can call him at (808) 245-3074 or you can send e-mail to jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.
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