Comments and Opinions by the staff of Adventure Books of Seattle.
Staff: Robert Blevins, Geoff Nelder, Christine Cartwright, Gayla Prociv, Andrew Thomas and Greg Page.
Staff: Robert Blevins, Geoff Nelder, Christine Cartwright, Gayla Prociv, Andrew Thomas and Greg Page.
When Did You Suspect Global Warming Was Real?
Posted 5th June 2007 at 09:13 AM by RobertM
Global Warming - When Did You First Suspect It Was Real?
When I was a kid growing up in the Puyallup ('Pew-Al-Up') Valley back in the Sixties, my friends and I could always count on a few heavy snows to pile up a good foot or better. We made huge forts, had snowball fights, and once we got together and rolled up a snowball at the old Dieringer School in Sumner that lasted for a month after the other snow melted.
Those were the good old days. As the years passed, I noticed that the frequency and amount of the snow was lessening, but I didn't give it much thought. Now those winters seem like some distant, colder past and it's hard to believe they ever happened.
Today, it just rains all the time. Of course, once in a while we get a few inches of snow, but it doesn't last long and is more of a freak occurrence , rather than a regular part of winter in Seattle.
Even the TV weathermen get tired of announcing 'another record high today for the Emerald City.' This happens so much now that no one really pays attention.
I can remember the first time I began to suspect global warming was real. I was getting out of my car on Thanksgiving morning in 1998. I looked up into the sky and saw a huge flock of geese heading north. For a moment, I thought I was disoriented and maybe they were actually heading south. I could not remember geese heading north so early in winter, and it gave me a strange feeling, as if the geese were trying to tell me something.
That was a ridiculous thought, of course. The geese just understood more about what was going on than I did. They knew instinctively that the lakes in Canada where they feed were going to be ice-free just a bit sooner this year. So they were already on their way to the feeding grounds. They adapted quickly to the new situation, which if you think about it, could make them smarter than humans.
Over the next few years, I began doing some rather amateur research on the warming trend. I would go to places in the high country and take pictures, or make simple observations. After a while, I just accepted the fact it was getting warmer in Washington. There was no real doubt. I saw glaciers shrink around Mount Rainier. I measured some snow levels here and there. I was able to access Forest Service roads in winter that would have been impossible without a snowmobile in pre-warming times. It became discouraging, and I finally gave it up.
Like the geese, I just adapted to the new situation. I sold my snowmobile and bought a raincoat and an air conditioner.
When I was a kid growing up in the Puyallup ('Pew-Al-Up') Valley back in the Sixties, my friends and I could always count on a few heavy snows to pile up a good foot or better. We made huge forts, had snowball fights, and once we got together and rolled up a snowball at the old Dieringer School in Sumner that lasted for a month after the other snow melted.
Those were the good old days. As the years passed, I noticed that the frequency and amount of the snow was lessening, but I didn't give it much thought. Now those winters seem like some distant, colder past and it's hard to believe they ever happened.
Today, it just rains all the time. Of course, once in a while we get a few inches of snow, but it doesn't last long and is more of a freak occurrence , rather than a regular part of winter in Seattle.
Even the TV weathermen get tired of announcing 'another record high today for the Emerald City.' This happens so much now that no one really pays attention.
I can remember the first time I began to suspect global warming was real. I was getting out of my car on Thanksgiving morning in 1998. I looked up into the sky and saw a huge flock of geese heading north. For a moment, I thought I was disoriented and maybe they were actually heading south. I could not remember geese heading north so early in winter, and it gave me a strange feeling, as if the geese were trying to tell me something.
That was a ridiculous thought, of course. The geese just understood more about what was going on than I did. They knew instinctively that the lakes in Canada where they feed were going to be ice-free just a bit sooner this year. So they were already on their way to the feeding grounds. They adapted quickly to the new situation, which if you think about it, could make them smarter than humans.
Over the next few years, I began doing some rather amateur research on the warming trend. I would go to places in the high country and take pictures, or make simple observations. After a while, I just accepted the fact it was getting warmer in Washington. There was no real doubt. I saw glaciers shrink around Mount Rainier. I measured some snow levels here and there. I was able to access Forest Service roads in winter that would have been impossible without a snowmobile in pre-warming times. It became discouraging, and I finally gave it up.
Like the geese, I just adapted to the new situation. I sold my snowmobile and bought a raincoat and an air conditioner.
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The Wilderness Editing Program
Editing books up in the mountains, and working occasionally on original material there is something I enjoy. I take a deep-cycle battery, an inverter, and sometimes an inverter to help power the laptop. For details and pictures of the latest AB adventure, visit the AB Images page at Adventure Books of Seattle.
www.adventurebooksofseattle.comPosted 2nd July 2007 at 09:26 AM by RobertM 
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