After another mild winter Thames Valley Golf Course has opened for the season, while this is great news for golfers, it may not be for the planet.
Seasonal businesses are really seeing the impacts of climate change.
“The last 2 years we have opened April fourth, and we are looking at a similar date again this year” shared Mike Vandertuin, a manager in sport service and development for the city of London and Thames Valley Golf Course.
In previous years, golf courses have typically seen opening dates in the middle to end of April.
“The weather has made for longer seasons, we are also able to play later into November.” added Mike.
While these mild winters are good for golfers, businesses on the other end such as ski resorts are seeing shorter seasons. Especially after this past winter, and the warmest December on record according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Dr. Stephen Argall a professor and meteorologist at Fanshawe College says global warming is “a very slow change, but it’s persistent”
“By the end of this century it will have increased by two to four degrees.” Dr Argall added.
However, this past winter was not fully a result of global warming.
“The main reason this winter was out of the ordinary was the El Niño,” said Dr Argall.
El Niño is a natural process in which ocean currents and the wind partons in the atmosphere interact according to experts.
“Next year El Niño should subside and we can go back to colder conditions, but it will still be warmer than it was 20 to 30 years ago,” said Dr Argall.
So although this winter had extra factors at play, global warming and mild winters are still a cause for concern.
“There are two things that we need to be concerned about” Said Dr Argall
One is how the local environment such as plants and animals will respond to the increase in temperatures. The other is that as we continue to put greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere that traps the energy from the sun, it creates an atmosphere with more energy, according to Dr Argall.
“When you mix more energy into the atmosphere we can expect more variability so stronger storms, more destructive tornadoes, heavy rainfall.” said Dr Argall.
Global Warming is the result of many things, such as cars, food sustainability and more. So things like carpooling and eating right can make a difference, however there is more to tackling climate change than that.
“It’s a very difficult problem, if it wasn’t a difficult problem it would’ve been solved.” said Dr Argall
Removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere “would be the saving thing that could change all of this” added Dr Argall.
Unfortunately it is not that simple.
“Nuclear fusion, a clean nuclear energy, shows some promise of being viable in the future, but that’s a long shot and not something we should rely on,” said Dr Argall.
There are many researchers who are working to find small ways to make changes and hopefully tackle global warming.
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