Effects of humans’ pollution override balance

Besides continuing human pollution of the atmosphere, four added factors are coming together to destroy nature's climate balance.

Heat-trapping methane has blanketed the United States. This has happened since July. See methanetracker.org.

The Arctic Ocean ice and Arctic region permafrost is being degraded severely by temperatures around 20 degrees above normal. About 90 percent of the Arctic frozen methane is in the top 10 feet, which is thawing.

El Nino heat is building in the Pacific and is likely to arrive this summer and fall. The winds over the warmer ocean have shifted to the east.

Hydroxyl holes have developed in the atmosphere above the ocean near Indonesia. Hydroxyls are nature's air cleaners. They remove air pollution and methane from the atmosphere. These holes are unexpected and could spread.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 700 Mount Pinatubo-size eruptions a year would have to occur to equal the amount of carbon dioxide that humans produce in a year. Human pollution and what it triggers completely has overrun nature's natural cycle and balance.

It may be a rough summer.

Harold Hensel

Cedar Rapids