Читать книгу Waves and Beaches - Kim McCoy - Страница 21

We are experiencing a wave of climate change that began within the past two centuries. Our liquid oceans and gaseous atmosphere now flow with a new wave of energy enveloping our planet. Water stabilizes our climate. It takes energy to change rigid ice into flowing water. It takes even more energy to change liquid water into water vapor. We know that the flow of energy connects everything. It influences the formation of continents, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, the strength of the Sun’s rays, the amount of ice, sea level, human population dynamics, types of atmospheric gases, ocean circulation patterns, seasons, the warm-cold meanders of the jet stream, winds, ocean waves, beach erosion, and sand formation. All are intertwined and essential.

We have disrupted the flow of energy to power our civilization. Per capita energy usage has increased one-hundred-fold in the past 1,000 years and doubled in the twentieth century. There is a direct relationship between the gross domestic product (GDP) per person of a country and its per person energy use. A wave of global population has upset the Earth’s climate and the resulting wave of climate change is now upon a densely populated coastline.