–OpEd–
WARSAW — In the face of the tragedy, some of the wise guys of the Internet — the types who use every cool breeze to write that global warming is the invention of crazy activists — have fallen silent.
I have a dream that they will fall silent forever and read what experts have to say on the matter.
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Children are often advised to focus on their studies. Today, adults should take it to heart to save the future of their descendants from the increasingly dramatic effects of the climate catastrophe.
Half of the country has been stricken by drought, while the other half is flooded: this is what Poland looks like at the moment. Tornadoes — once an extremely rare phenomenon — are regularly passing through the country.
The connection between the great wave destroying southern Poland and climate change was explained to us in an interview by Professor Szymon Malinowski, a specialist in the field of cloud and precipitation physics and numerical modeling of atmospheric processes: “Oceans are getting warmer, atmospheric circulation is changing as a result of climate change,” he says. “All this means that the risk of such phenomena is getting higher.”
The role of forests
I have a dream that the voice of experts will be the most important in making corrective decisions when the destructive wave has subsided.
Unfortunately, this has not always been the case. Despite growing knowledge about the role of forests in preventing climate catastrophe, successive governments in Poland have decided that the state forests should be used to cultivate timber, instead of protecting nature.
Professor Krzysztof Świerkosz explains that it is crucial to save forests now, so that they can later save us from great floods.
I have a dream that politicians will finally start taking science seriously. Not only when they are flooded.
