Snow in DC Does not Disprove "Global Warming"

So many newscasters have been cracking the joke lately that this record-breaking amount of snow getting dumped on the East Coast disproves Global Warming. Some of them are joking, some aren't-- either way, it deserves clarification.

First: Global Warming is no longer the term scientists are using, because it causes too much confusion. The new, official term is Climate Change.

Second: All this snow in DC actually helps to prove that "Global Warming" is happening.

1990-2000 was the warmest decade in the past thousand years. Climate change is a slow process, not a day-to-day occurrence; therefore, an unusually cold day in DC is not really a big deal, because it's not the big picture. But also, think of it this way: when you heat up a pot of water, the hotter it gets, the more quickly the water molecules move. A boiling pot bubbles out of control. The same thing happens when we heat up our climate: it gets more intensely active. Which means bigger snow storms, hurricanes, tsunamis, etc. The heat and damage we're inflicting upon our thin atmosphere is essentially super-charging the weather. And as everyone can see, that's not such a good thing for mankind.

The dominant force powering the Earth's cycles is heat, both from the sun and the Earth's core. Damage to the atmosphere reduces our very fragile shield from the sun. The more sun [heat] allowed in, the more powerful the Earth's cycles become. Natural disasters have gotten much more regular and intense in the past years-- plain and simple, there's no denying this.

But even if you don't believe in Climate Change, there's absolutely no reason to destroy our planet's protection from the rest of the non-life supporting universe. It's like climbing up on your roof every day and tearing a shingle out just so you can drive your SUV or eat food that's imported from thousands of miles away. It doesn't make sense. But since people don't feel directly connected to the damage that's occurring, it's easy to ignore... But at this rate, it looks like the weather will become pretty hard to ignore soon.

Here's an entertaining video from the Rachel Maddow show about why the snow on the East Coast does not disprove Global Warming. Featuring everybody's favorite, Bill Nye the Science Guy (yes, he IS alive).

Increased Exports & Big Ag Won't Feed the World

So there's a big myth circling around right now that in a couple decades, we won't be able to feed the world's population. The global population is expected to top 9 billion by 2050. There are currently 7 billion people living on Earth, and so many go hungry, that this assumption makes sense. But it's not true. We produce more than enough food today: we grow over 4,000 calories per person per day, or twice what we need.

We just don't distribute the food correctly. In 2008, we grew more food than ever before; more people were obese than ever before; food companies made more profit than ever before; and more people went hungry than ever before. If all the food we grow gets turned into money-yielding byproducts, like high fructose corn syrup, packaged cereals, and microwave dinners, of course it won't feed the world. And of course it won't keep the world healthy.

The solution to global hunger is not Big Ag, food exports, or prepackaged meals. According to over 400 of the world's leading scientists and naturalists (IAASTD), genetically modified crops and chemical agriculture have not actually been proven to increase crop yield. Experts from all over the world agree that the future of agriculture rests in local food production, not increased exports. Local food production, on the other hand, dramatically decreases energy use and pollution, while focusing on local necessities and therefore producing more of what is needed, in the ways needed. If farmers are taught how to work with their land and climate, instead of relying on expensive chemicals and GMOs, we will see a better solution to hunger.

But of course, the truth of local food keeps getting ignored in favor of giant corporate moneymaking opportunities. In Obama's State of the Union Address, he touted the need for America to produce more exports in order to support more jobs here in America. Well, yes, we should produce more of what we need here... but we should also keep it here. Big Ag companies want to turn global hunger into a market opportunity. Global hunger is a humanitarian issue, not an opportunity for another American moneymaking monopoly.