Global Warming’s Tiny Warrior
I have wondered if the melting glaciers will eventually submerge thousands of acres of coastal land. It is actually a likely scenario because the world has been warming for a long time. People have helped to increase the natural melting of the glaciers. How? For one, cutting down trees.
For example, Europe from the Benelux countries through Germany and Austria had thousands of forested acres. Karl the Great (Charlemagne) spent a lot of time chasing pagans to force them into Christianity. However, his travels created roadways eastward through those forests.
Humans have used trees for fortresses, homes, and bridges. Trees were carved to make tools for farming and for hundreds of other necessities, like fuel for fireplaces to warm homes.
Without the shade of trees, the sun’s solar energy warms the Earth, and the planet retains the heat for a longer time. This is a truly global effect.
Some believe global warming is natural because the earth has gone through cycles of change in the past. But do we want to take a chance on having humanity extinguished to let the globe return to its natural ways? I believe we can learn to compromise.
Interestingly, I just learned of an unusual global warming warrior. Although it’s called a Giant Larvacea, it’s actually a small (10 centimeters max) sea creature that can reduce greenhouse emissions and planet-warming gases from the atmosphere. A larvacean builds a gelatinous house from its mucus, which appears like a white croissant and filters particulates from the ocean. Its body is a round blue mass at the center, and its tail is outlined in luminescent blue. Nearly transparent and no larger than a fist, the squishy tadpole-like animal appears to be surrounded by an enormous balloon of mucus up to 3 feet wide. This “house” is regularly shed and replaced. The discard, with its store of carbon, drops to the deep ocean where it is consumed by other animals or buried.
My third espionage novel, Fatal Identity, relates to another method of fighting global warming. An Iranian organization is determined to obtain a scientific discovery that deals with the atmospheric contamination from radioactive poisons. This breakthrough explains how it can be reduced and contained with the use of a different natural element. Unfortunately, that one is not as cute as a Larvacea.
