| I have always worried about the environment, but, | | | | Atlantic, just where the Gulf Stream turns eastward |
| like most of us I have ended up leaving the solutions | | | | and starts its loop across the Atlantic and then |
| to environmental problems to "the experts". | | | | southward along the western shores of northern |
| Pollution making it difficult to find drinking water? The | | | | Europe. This has a tremendous moderating effect on |
| "experts will take care of it. The air in our cities the | | | | the climate, essentially making Great Britain and the |
| consistency and color of German mustard? well, | | | | rest of northern Europe habitable. Fresh water, being |
| people who live in cities chose to live there, and | | | | heavier than salt water, sinks to the bottom of the |
| besides, The "experts" will fix it. Recently, however, | | | | sea. There is real cause for concern that all this fresh, |
| there has evolved a problem that I can`t ignore, and | | | | sinking water will drag the Gulf Stream down with it, |
| neither should you. Global warming is on the news | | | | thus ending the circulation of the stream and turning |
| every day, the reason being that it is a real, viable | | | | Europe and North America into a deep-freeze. |
| threat to the entire planet. | | | | Air pollution in the form of greenhouse gases is the |
| Yesterday, there was a report that said that 3.2 | | | | culprit, and almost all the industrialized world produces |
| trillion tons of ice has melted in the arctic this year. | | | | it at an astounding rate because a huge percentage |
| And that`s not counting the antarctic, which has | | | | of electricity is produced using fossil fuels such as |
| much more ice and is melting just as fast. "So what?" | | | | coal and oil to turn the turbines that generate the |
| you might think, "it`s just more water!" Ah, but | | | | power, thus sending billions of tons of greenhouse |
| therein, as the saying goes, lies the rub. More fresh | | | | gases into the atmosphere where it traps the heat |
| water in our oceans can have a dramatic effect on | | | | from the sun, raising global temperatures. |
| the global climate, most notably in Europe and North | | | | Eventually, almost everyone on the planet will be |
| America. | | | | forced to lower their "carbon footprint" if we are to |
| You see, arctic ice, melting at the rate that it is, is | | | | survive. |
| adding trillions of gallons of fresh water to the north | | | | |