... last night in Natural Resources we had guest speaker Monique Wismer come in to speak about climate change and carbon credit trading.
Ms. Wismer gave a GREAT overview of something incredibly complex and technical to fairly non-technical people, and was an engaging speaker.
It was so interesting to have the perspective of a REAL SCIENTIST, as opposed to the political activists (I could write a lot about fear mongering for ulterior motives ... but we'll leave that for another day).
Looking at real data, you can see how greenhouse gasses (did you know water vapour is considered a greenhouse gas - I didn't ...) have risen exponentially since the industrial revolution ... a lot more so than the historically expected rise due to the cyclical patterns that exist on this planet (~ a 100K year cycle from ice-age to ice-age ... is what I gathered from the presentation last night ...).
This info isn't highly controversial ... so from what I gather, the controversial bit is what this actually MEANS. It seems that MOST scientists worry about this increased rate itself, while there is the worry out there that if the pattern deviates too greatly, we could actually break the cycle and not GET to our next ice-age. The hugeness of that seems crazy.
So ... as one of my classmates put forward in discussion ... what we need is for some genius to invent some radical technology to fix this. Any takers?
As for the carbon credit trading overview - I had no idea that there were separate markets for this stuff (maybe I've had my head in the sand?).
The policy and decision making that Canada is involved in RIGHT NOW is so neat to be able to watch ... this is governing in action with real repercussions! Talk about an administrative nightmare.
Gave me a little to think about regarding the major paper that I'm going to do on coal bed methane - WHICH I have to do an outline and pick a thesis for ... ah ... the to do list is starting to grow ... I'm not gonna lie ... I kind of love it.
I'll tell you, though, having evening classes is sure changing the dynamic of my life. Not in a bad way ... just a very different pace.
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