Op-Ed

10 degrees of difference - in the ocean

 And 10 more degrees say "goodbye lobsters"
Some food for thought about your dining future

By Richrd Barlett, Cotuit

When we read that parts of China's breadbasket provinces are  already being turned into deserts, one of the early effects of  climate change, we have to wonder how long our own midwest will be a  reliable source of food for American tables.

If we can't have maple syrup on our pancakes and lobsters become  only a memory, and water  and vegetable resources disappear, will we  still see Hummers on the roads? Will we still elect politicians who  try to prevent wind farms?      If we put our corn production into ethanol because of a national  addiction to gas-guzzling, over-horsed, highly polluting vehicles,  where will Orville Redenbacher get his wonderful popcorn, and what  will Kellogg make cornflakes out of?

     With the earth's glaciers disappearing and traditionally snow-capped mountains rapidly losing their white headgear, huge areas on  all the continents will lose their sources of water for irrigating  croplands, as well as for people's personal use. Climate change won't  seem to be an abstract phenomenon when one has to live without water.  
In fact, obviously, life without water is impossible.

     Botanists tell us Vermont's sugar maples will be early victims  of rising temperatures. Better stock up on maple syrup if you like  that gorgeous fluid on your pancakes!

     Scientists warn us that the oceans are warming toward the point  of extinction for lobsters and those species of fish that only  flourish in cold water. Maine's Dr. Diane Cowan has been studying  lobster populations for 15 years. She has acquired a reputation as  the preeminent authority. Her figures for the ocean's temperatures  say there has been a 10 degree rise since 1993. "If it does that  again, they're gone. They're cooked." She doesn't mean baked stuffed.  "Dr. Lobster," as she is known to lobstermen, says, "I think global  warming is real, and I think it's had a detrimental effect on  lobsters south of Cape Cod, and it could do the same for Maine."

     If we can't have maple syrup on our pancakes and lobsters become  only a memory, and water  and vegetable resources disappear, will we  still see Hummers on the roads? Will we still elect politicians who  try to prevent wind farms? Will obstructionists still quote fossil  fuel moguls in opposing renewable energy opportunities?

     No measure against climate change should be off the table. Bon  appetite!

Below are Richard C. Bartlett's previous Op Ed pieces;

• An incredible confluence of news stories
• SOS or SOP
• The sky is falling, the sky is falling, windmills in the briny !
• Why Kyoto is not enough
• Invisible Structures
• Bill Delahunt; modern mugwump