National Geographic - 283

 I flew helicopters for close to 40 years. The FAA and the US Army require a flight physical every year to maintain airmanship privileges. One of the uncomfortable psychological aspects of these physicals is if you fail a flight physical, your career ends. Many of my pilot friends temporarily or permanently ended their careers at the flight surgeon's office.

You would think the high-risk mandatory trips to the doctor's office for a flight physical would be memories best suppressed. Surprisingly, no. What I remember about my required flight exams was the fact waiting rooms usually had copies of National Geographic. (Nat Geo).

You know the routine at the doctor's or dentist's office. You arrive, check-in, and wait…and wait. Waiting didn't bother me because it was a chance to learn something new by browsing through new Nat Geo mags. Sometimes, I would take the magazine along to the exam room to maximize my opportunity to read. There is a good chance while waiting for a physical; this was when I first read about climate change.

National Geographic's first issue was printed in 1888. I am still determining when National Geographic started covering the science of climate change. But in November 2015, the cover had a satellite picture of our home planet, Earth, on it. The title was "Cool It, the Climate Issue". In the three years leading up to 2017, National Geographic ran 34 stories on climate change.

Here are quotes I have unashamedly cherry-picked from National Geographic articles:

"Contrary to popular opinion, science is not divided on the issue of climate change. The overwhelming majority (97 percent) of scientists agree that global warming is real and that it is largely caused by human activity. And yet we seem to be experiencing record-breaking cold winters; in January 2019, a polar vortex plunged parts of North America into Arctic conditions. It may seem counterintuitive, but cold weather events like these do not disprove global warming because weather and climate are two different things."

"While weather refers to short-term changes in the atmosphere, climate refers to atmospheric changes over longer periods of time, usually defined as 30 years or more. This is why it is possible to have an especially cold spell even though, on average, global temperatures are rising. The former is a weather event that takes place over the course of days, while the latter indicates an overall change in climate, which occurs over decades. In other words, the cold winter is a relatively small atmospheric perturbation within a much larger, long-term trend of warming."

"The global climate has always been in a state of flux. However, it is changing much faster now than it has in the past, and this time human activities are to blame. One of the leading factors contributing to climate change is the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, gas, and oil, which we use for transport, energy production, and industry.

 Burning fossil fuels releases large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere; CO2 is one of a group of chemicals known as greenhouse gases. They are so named because they allow heat from the sun to enter the atmosphere but stop it from escaping, much like the glass of a greenhouse. The overall effect is that the global temperature rises, leading to a phenomenon known as global warming."

"Global warming is a type of climate change, and it is already having a measurable effect on the planet in the form of melting Arctic Sea ice, retreating glaciers, rising sea levels, increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, and a change in animal and plant ranges."

And, my favorite Nat Geo quote: "On Climate Change (and everything else), we are on the side of facts."

    Reading National Geographic magazines at dentists' and doctors' offices is a thing of the past. As my parents and friends aged, I accompanied them to their appointments. My favorite science magazines have disappeared. If there are magazines, they are gossip magazines like "People."

    In a complete role reversal and in an effort to reverse this trend, I took my science magazines along and left them. That was a waste. If you just read this, you are in a minority. Reading a reputable science magazine or article has not been the trend for years.

   Today, I do not read in the waiting rooms. I watch people. Today, people stare at the ever-present television screens hung everywhere. 

  Few read, and fewer still read science articles.

       As I write this column, in my lap sits my last National Geographic issue, 11.2023; "The Race to Save the Planet."

   Can we win the race?

Search: http://www NationalGeographic.com/environment/topic/climate-change#knowitishappening