July 4 • 2019 19 jn P aul Gross is a meteorologist with WDIV-TV and a member of and four-time past pres- ident of Temple Kol Ami in West Bloomfield. The JN recently caught up with him to ask him some ques- tions about climate change. Q : What is your background or experience with climate change? PG: I have followed climate change closely since the early 1990s, when I interviewed my first climate scien- tist. I attend one or two conferences a year — such as the American Meteorological Society conference for broadcast meteorologists and International Weather and Climate Forum — to get the latest updates directly from climate scientists them- selves and have traveled the world to meet with and interview them. I give a lot of lectures about climate change — and am happy to come to syna- gogues and give my lecture. Q : How would you best describe climate change to people who may be skeptical? PG: There are three things that largely determine a planet’ s average temperature: the distance from its star — in our case, the sun — its surface albedo (color) and the composition of its atmosphere. Neither our distance from the sun nor our albedo has changed in the past 100 years. However, humans have changed the composition of our planet’ s atmo- sphere … that’ s the only thing that has recently changed. Remember that heat results from energy coming in minus energy going out. Adding carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide to our atmosphere — which mostly come from human activity — means that less heat is escaping to space. So, the planet warms. Earth’ s climate has warmed many times in its history, but all those pre- vious warmings resulted from astro- nomical changes — Earth’ s tilt, rota- tion or orbit around the sun. None of those things have happened this time. That’ s why we know that the current warming is not part of some cycle. Q : How is climate change impact- ing us in Michigan? PG: We are seeing an increase in extreme precipitation events, and the reason is simple: In a warmer world, more ocean water evaporates into the atmosphere. That atmospheric water vapor is what storms turn into pre- cipitation, so it’ s easy to see why the big storms are dropping more rain. But it’ s not just rain. It’ s the big snow- storms, too. People will be shocked to hear that six of Detroit’ s 11 all-time snowiest winters have occurred since 1980! We’ re also seeing a later first frost in the fall and earlier last frost in the spring. That may initially sound like good news, but if you have allergies, the longer growing season means a longer misery season for you. Q : Any other facts that our read- ers should know about climate change? Special interest groups and politi- cians have created a lot of confusion, and there have been some radical statements made by both sides. I’ ve heard left-wing groups say that we must “stop” global warming. Well, we’ re past the point of being able to stop it: Some of the changes that have already occurred are irreversible for 1,000 years or more. The key is to slow it down so plants, animals and humans can adapt and mitigate. Anybody you hear advocating a position of “stopping” global warming has a radical point of view. I once heard an environmental- ist say at a conference that the world must go cold turkey and immediately eliminate carbon-based energy pro- duction and fuel. That’ s impossible. Conversely, I’ ve heard right-wing groups completely deny the science, and these are very well-funded groups who are adept at spreading their gos- pel. Some of the misinformation I’ ve seen coming out of these groups is the most factually ridiculous communica- tion I’ ve ever seen in my entire life. Back in 2001, I had the privilege of putting a letter in a Detroit time capsule that is not to be opened until the year 2100. I wrote about climate change … explaining the state of the science at that time and, in that letter, I made the following closing statement, that I’ ll have to para- phrase: I hope that, 100 years from now, you aren’ t asking why we didn’ t do anything 100 years ago when we knew what was happening and had the chance to take steps to reduce the warming. It is unchallengeable scientific fact that humans have changed the com- position of our planet’ s atmosphere. And the resulting thermodynamics are simple: We are also changing our planet’ s climate. It’ s always easiest to kick the can down the road and not worry about a problem that won’ t affect us that dramatically. But do we really want to do this to our children, grandchildren and great-grandchil- dren? ■ CORRIE COLF STAFF WRITER Talking Climate Change with Paul Gross Paul Gross holds a homemade “comet” he made during a science demo. PHOTO (COURTESY OF PAUL GROSS) How You Can Help Battle Climate Change • Reduce electricity use. • Replace conventional light bulbs with LED bulbs. • Replace manual thermostats to programmable. • Seal drafts from windows or doors to improve home’ s insulation. • Unplug chargers when not in use. Anything plugged into the outlet that has a block on it uses power even when not charging! • Reduce car emissions by keeping your car tuned up and driving efficiently.