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Wait – I hate winter. Why is global warming bad?

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	Anyone who has survived the Midwestern windchill can probably sympathize with the first part of this question. However, while you might like warmer weather, you probably don’t like extreme weather. In the context of climate change, the two go together. This is how it works. Human-generated greenhouse gas emissions like CO2 result from burning fossil fuels for electricity and transportation. These gases trap extra heat and eventually water vapor in the atmosphere, beyond normal quantities. Thus, the trapped gases begin to warm the earth. A warmer earth and atmosphere are more volatile, and less able to regulate sudden temperature extremes. An atmosphere loaded with water vapor also throws off the hydrologic cycle. The result is extreme weather – intense rains that often occur out of season and last longer than usual, alternating with extended drought cycles. Warmer winters are problems in many areas. Mountainous regions of the U.S. and the globe usually depend on snowmelt for their year-round water supply (Denver is an example). If they don’t get snow, they don’t have water. Then they have to go looking for it elsewhere. Why is global warming bad? For many reasons – but mainly, it could change our environment so radically that massive species extinctions could take place. The very fabric of life could undergo an unthinkably enormous transformation. If climate change happens rapidly, even our own species will suffer. Large numbers of humanitarian disasters would take place across the globe. Those tend to crash economies, weaken political order, and lead to major social changes. They also have ripple effects that reach even into more stable areas, and have consequences for our national security.
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