Let’s talk about the Earth

By: Cody Boteler, Senior Editor

The climate is changing, it’s our fault and we’re screwed if we don’t do anything to stop things from getting worse.

Hi. I’m Cody. In addition to journalism, I’m studying environmental science. The overlap of these two fields has led me to realize that, while there is a lot of good reporting in the world, not a lot of that reporting focuses too much on our environment.

I want to help change that, because, as you may have noted earlier, human society will collapse if we don’t do anything to stem the currently changing climate.

And yes, the climate is changing. Earth is getting hotter.

Yes, it was cold in Baltimore this winter. No, that does not mean that global warming is a myth.

Baltimore may have experienced a cold February, but most of the rest of the world saw temperatures that were higher than average.

While one month isn’t enough to show that the globe is warming up, it is symptomatic of the trend: Data from NASA show that, since the 1880s, the global temperature has been rising.

Other data sets show, conclusively, that it is human activity that is causing the warming. Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists are in consensus on the fact.

I’ll spare you the details for now, since this is the first column, but that’s the sort of thing that I’ll be reporting on. Our climate, our planet and our environment.

As often as possible, it’ll focus on Maryland issues (you’ll be reading a lot about chicken manure in the Chesapeake Bay).

It won’t always be doom and gloom. Yeah, I believe that society is screwed if we don’t do something, but I also strongly believe that we have the capacity and the will to do a lot of things for the better. The world can be a better place.

So, as often as possible, I’ll also be discussing different ways that you, as an individual, can do work toward mitigating climate change.

While this column will focus on different aspects of the environment and environmental issues, not just the climate, I will use the next column to explain the science of human-caused climate change.

I’m a reporter so I’ll stick to the facts. But I won’t be apologetic for treating anthropogenic climate change as a fact and I won’t waste time with climate change deniers.

Protecting our environment is the most serious issue that humanity has ever faced and I’m not going to spend any time pretending that people who say otherwise have any ground to stand on.

2 thoughts on “Let’s talk about the Earth

  1. The people who say otherwise won’t have ground to stand on because they will be doing the backstroke. Along with the rest of us.

    Quite a few of the TU faculty are interested in this and you might want to contact some of us.

  2. Towson University Eco-reps are VERY interested in fighting climate change as well..! Feel free to reach out to the group if you’d like help with anything.

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