"There is a wrecking crew here in Bali," according to Jennifer Morgan of the Climate Action Network, citing the current U.S. administration for failing to tackle global warming more aggressively.
Unfortunately, it is already too late. Scientists studying the glaciers have detected a definite increase in melting, which will lead to dangerous flooding. In addition, the warming climate threatens the spruce forests that are such a hallmark of Northern Illinois. With this loss of habitat, zoologists predict that the woolly mammoth and the mastodon face certain extinction.
The contours of Lake Chicago have demonstrably been altered by the loss of glacial coverage, and climatologists are warning Wisconsin residents to brace for some dark days ahead. Not only will the Laurentide ice sheet disappear, but the underlying ecosystem will be annihilated. New and unknown plant species will begin to populate areas once covered with ice, while retreating glaciers leave behind pockets of rock, or kettle moraines, that will seriously hamper Pleistocene life as we know it.Climate sceptics have been arguing that these swings in temperature are normal and due largely to variations in solar activity and the wobbling of the earth's axis. They have gone so far as to suggest that glacial retreat from the Upper Midwest could be beneficial, with the creation of large bodies of fresh water. These "Great Lakes" will host a variety of life, while new "Mississippi" or "Ohio" rivers could become magnets for wildlife that will not include our familiar giant beaver and stag-moose.
Even as global warming is being discussed, the glaciers continue to melt and no real action has been taken to stop this disaster in the making.
By the way, the bits about the glaciers melting and extinctions and all, that happened about 10,000 years ago. Not so very distant, is it, when you consider how old our little blue planet is.
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