Another Alarm Bell In A Global Wake-Up
When the story is written of how the world in general woke up to the reality of global warming, the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet will figure largely.
The awakening has only properly happened in the past three years. Yet, as an issue, climate change has been with us since 1988, when a series of connected events put it firmly on the international agenda.
In that year, the United Nations set up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a major conference on the changing atmosphere took place in Toronto, Margaret Thatcher, then Prime Minister, seized upon the issue with a speech to the Royal Society, and the US scientist James Hansen made headlines with testimony to the Senate about global warming in the middle of an unprecedented drought in the American mid-west.
But although the threat began to be news from then on, it was seen as a distant one, because it was perceived through the medium of supercomputer models of the global climate. They showed dire things which might happen in 100 years’ time, say, if we carried on pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
By and large, global warming’s advent was seen as theory by most people, other than the scientists involved and committed environmentalists. Most mainstream politicians saw it as very much a second order issue, even after the publication of the IPCC’s third report in 2001.
However, in the four years between that assessment and the conference on Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change at the UK Met Office in Exeter in February 2005, things changed - and Greenland was the biggest change of all.
Scientists started to realise that the melting of its giant ice sheet, which the 2001 IPCC report had said would take 1,000 years or more, had dramatically speeded up, and its internal dynamics had not been properly understood. A key moment in the public consciousness came in May 2004 when, on the front page of The Independent, the green guru James Lovelock renewed his call for nuclear power to be used to fight global warming - basing his alarm very much on the speed with which the Greenland ice was melting.
Since then, an increasing series of studies have confirmed this increasing rate of change, in Greenland but in other ecosystems too, and the world community as a whole has realised that far from being a distant threat, the effects of global warming are with us already, and are growing every day.
© 2007 The Independent
It is not unpredictable that alarm bells are ringing all over the world and we still keep belting out greenhouse gasses. I was amused at goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2040 (when there won’t be any oil left anyway). Lets see, how can we eliminate the problem? One conservation, immediately raise gas taxes to $8 per gallon and use the money for public transportation. Two alternative energy, plant marijuana everywhere and cover it with reflective tenting to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere and reflect more of the solar input radiation. Build electric cars running on solar cells. Require every roof to be at least half covered with solar panels. Three reforestation, plant cedar trees in Lebanon, replant all the rain forests that have been cut down.
We really can solve this problem, all we have to do is change our backwards thinking.
Wow so climatologists got it wrong again and we still believe them. I’m not saying I don’t believe in global warming I do. That being said no climate prediction has yet been proven true. We do not know how the earth works. Not a clue. Will it be a one degree rise that is actually better than now… we think. two to three degrees adaptations seems like a better idea. More than three what drastic action will stop it I’ve heard reports that planting trees relases carbon dioxide in the soil until they reach maturity 5-15 years later. Do we plant trees or not? We are completely shooting in the dark here and we need some concrete this WILL lead to this or we are not making hard choices we’re making blind guesses.
Folks, the problem is human overpopulation. Most of the other problems that we face, including global warming and indeed, the insane war in Iraq, are mere symptoms of overpopulation.
Live free or die!
Well, if you think the emissions of greenhouse gases are nothing to worry about, please run your car in an enclosed garage for about 30 minutes and then get back to me.
The only thing I object to in freeheeler’s post is the word “mere.”
Overpopulation is a huge problem because the only cure is a massive die-off, reducing the population by about two thirds.
To every solution, there is a problem: Life springs eternal.
Increased agricultural output doesn’t fix hunger.
Antibiotics don’t cure disease.
Pesticides don’t kill pests.
Progress is extinction.
We have no common goal. Our common goal, survival, is leading toward our destruction.
Consider the lillies of the field…
Alarm bells have always been ringing Mike. There is a more imporant issue than global warming. It is called MEDIA REFORM. How media reform applies to global warming can be seen in the contrast between ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, and ‘the Great Global Warming Swindle.’
The more alarm bells that ring the more global warming scientists, journalists, and certain administrations will make money.
Think about it; many people are making money off so called Global Warming and you are helping them Mike McCarthy. (Perhaps you are making money off Global Warming?)
The solution is systemic and begins with MEDIA REFORM so we can begin to trust agian.
Be positive.
adamwestfakey@yahoo.ca
When Der Bushenfuehrer is impeached, I hope that one of the charges brought against him is his administration’s deliberate disinformation campaign to discredit science that supports climate change, as well as the distortion of scientific reports that support climate change and/or predict disastrous consequences if we continue our present course.
Yawn. Hey who really cares if the media is telling you that there’s greenhouse gas emissions that are likely to heat the planet beyond a survivable temperature. The media spends a lot more money telling you to buy the Toyota Tundra super-truck and promoting the happy “clean coal” lie.
Last night on the local PBS station some college student was on who got a $10k environmental scholarship. When I asked him why we don’t see college students at environmental events he said that they communicate about it on MySpace.
Global Warming apparently makes youth stupid. I think the youth of America are collectively working on a millenium grade “Darwin Award.” Drive in futile circles to display your fitness for breeding while ignoring that the driving is likely to kill your offspring.
Good job kids!!
Understanding Global Warming and the pollution of our planet means that you understand we have very little time left. Yes — overpopulation and pollution play strong roles in Global Warming.
Go see “Who Killed the Electric Car?”
We could have electric cars on the roads in weeks.
We could replace all gasoline driven cars in five years.
We need to take back control of our natural resources from private families.
We have a Supreme Court prepared to do neo-con/corporate/elite bidding which means barring all but public funding of campaigns will be a huge battle.
And a media which is in corporate hands.
This is a person-to-person WAKE UP call –
Get out and start talking to your fellow citizens —
Talk to Congress every day –
Get up and go if you want to save this planet and humanity.
And — yes — fascism is crossing our American threshold.
Impeachment would also be a great idea.
“We could have electric cars on the roads in weeks.
We could replace all gasoline driven cars in five years.”
Interesting web site on the topic that tells Do-It-Yourselfers how to get started.
www.electric-cars-plans.com
Republicans are fighting overpopulation by killing people instead of giving them access to birth control.