Climate change is real. It is happening right now and is happening quickly in terms of geologic time.

Climate change is not a new phenomenon. It has happened over the eons of earth's existence. For example, over the last one million years as the climate cooled, glaciers advanced over much of what is now Canada and into the United States. Each glacial advance halted when the climate began to warm and the glaciers began to retreat. We are now in an interglacial period.

But what is different now? Nearly all world climate scientists are in accord that carbon emissions from human activity are responsible for a more rapid escalation of climate change that would be happening naturally. As global temperatures rise, Ice sheets in the Antarctic and Greenland are melting and sea level is rising more rapidly than it would without the carbon emissions. An average world temperature increase of three to five degree Celsius as some predict for the end of the 21st century will result in a serious crisis for the world human population because a significant percentage of the earth's population lives in coastal areas.

So what is being done, if anything? An agreement hammered out in Paris, France, in 2015 by representatives from nearly all the nations in the world is an effort to combat climate change and adapt to its effects on a global basis. Its primary agenda is to try to keep the global temperature rise this century to less than two degrees Celsius.

The Paris Agreement was opened for ratification on Earth Day 2016. It entered into force in November 2016 after enough countries ratified it to account for more than 55 percent of global carbon emissions. To date (December 2018), 184 nations have ratified it.

The most significant nation not to ratify, however, is whom? You guessed it, the United States. If our national leadership doesn't accept the premise that climate change is accelerating faster because of man's activities (carbon releases), why would they sign on to an agreement that would likely involve a significant financial commitment for this country? I can't answer that question.

What I do know is that many states, cities, communities, NGO's and other groups in the United States, some 3,000 strong, believe that the problem is serious enough that they support the Paris Agreement. Whether this grassroots support for the Paris Agreement will be adequate for the federal government to change its tune is unknown.

So why is a water guy concerned? With increasing, global temperatures have come an increase in significant damaging climatic events nearly all of which include a major water component. Hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, excessive rainfall, droughts, wildfires all are water-related – either too much or too little water. Couple that with the fact that more than one billion people on our planet at present do not have access to clean drinking water and the concern increases.

What is the answer? I wish I knew. I do know that this year the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of eminent climate scientists from around the world released a report in which they state that the use of fossil fuels must be curtailed because they believe we are within about 12 years of a disastrous environmental breakdown. This is concerning. I hope they are not correct but I'm afraid they are. If action is not taken, I guess all we can do is wait and see.

This will be my last regular Water World column for the Eccentric after almost eight years of writing. I've been retired for more than three years and it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to come up with subject matter that I think will be of interest to my readers. I may still do an occasional column if interesting and controversial water-related events occur. I wish to thank Daniel Morrow and Dee Dee Hubbard for giving me the opportunity to write this column, and also a heartfelt thanks to you, my readers.