Just days after a report was issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warning of the widespread impact of drastic fluctuations in global temperature, NBC News aired “Ann Curry Reports: Our Year of Extremes – Did Climate Change Just Hit Home?”
The special featured interviews with a variety of experts, including glaciologist Jason Box who has been measuring the recession of ice in the Arctic. According to Box, the glaciers of Iceberg Alley in Greenland have been losing ice into the sea for thousands of years, the the rate of loss has doubled in the past ten years.
How much of that loss can be contributed to human activities? University of Colorado Professor of Environmental Studies Roger Peilke, Jr. claims that while climate change would happen with or without human activity, we do have an impact of how and to what extent the climate changes.
As the Arctic warms, it causes the jet stream to enlarge, and as the jet streams grows, it moves more slowly. This causes weather to remain in place for longer. The effect? We can expect longer bouts of bad weather when it happens. Droughts like the one currently being experienced in California will last longer, causing more and more problems for humans, including a breakdown of our agricultural systems.
Just as humans can impact climate change for the negative, we also have the potential to impact it for the better. In 2013, more American homes than ever before in history had solar panels installed
on their rooftops. In the third quarter of the year alone, 31,000 new solar panels were installed. That means that right now there’s an estimated 9,400 megawatts of solar energy in the US, enough to power 1.5 million homes, which is equivalent to removing 1.9 million cars from the road or planting 236,000,000 trees.
Be a part of the movement to impact climate change for the better. The team at Sunlight Contractors can talk to you about how to make your home more energy efficient whether through the installation of solar energy panels or state of the art insulation.
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Main Office: Sunlight Contractors, LLC 2323 Bainbridge St #110, Kenner, LA 70062 (504) 919-9993
New Orleans location: Sunlight Contractors, LLC 650 Poydras St, Suite 1400, Rm 33, New Orleans, LA 70130 (504) 302-0058
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