Morrow warns effects of climate change

By TOM STANKARD

[email protected]

Bessemer - As concerns about the environment grow, Greyson Morrow, of Wakefield, informed residents and the Bessemer City Council Monday evening about the effects of climate change.

In front of a large audience, Morrow said the American Association for the Advancement of Science announced climate change is a "growing threat to society."

According to its website, the AAAS is an international non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science for the benefit of all people.

Over the years, Morrow said the impacts of climate change have been increasing, and 97 percent of actively publishing climate scientists predict the effects will continue to increase substantially throughout the coming decades.

As evidence, Morrow said the global temperature of the earth is warming, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which monitors the general temperature of the earth.

According to its website, the NASA Earth Observatory claimed thermometer readings all around the world have risen steadily since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

Since 1880, NASA claimed the average global temperature on Earth has increased by about .8 of a degree Celsius.

More specifically, NASA indicated two-thirds of the warming has occurred since 1975, at a rate of roughly 0.15-0.20 of a degree Celsius per decade.

Morrow said even a one-degree global change is significant because it takes a vast amount of heat to warm all the oceans, atmosphere, and land by that much.

To help slow down climate change, Morrow encouraged area respondents to try to burn less fossil fuels, which pollute the air with carbon dioxide.