Lobbying groups for the energy companies and environmentalists have boosted their spending by double digits in a year because they knew that the US Senate would debate environmental legislation ahead of global climate change talks next month.
But science and specifics are hard to find in the barrage of ads and messages about green jobs, alternative energy and the dangers of pollution.
The snows of Mount Kilimanjaro will be gone within two decades, according to scientists who say that the rapid melting of its glacier cap over the past century provides dramatic physical evidence of global climate change.
If the forecast - based on 95 years of data tracking the retreat of the Kilimanjaro ice - proves correct it will be the first time in about 12,000 years that the slopes of Africa's highest mountain have been ice-free.
One of the world's leading climate change gurus urged people to become
vegetarian today, to help beat global warming.
Nicholas Stern, the author of an influential 2006 review of climate change,
said methane emissions from cows and pigs were putting "enormous pressure"
on the world and people needed to think about what they ate.
In 1992, I attended an event that filled me with hope.
Canada and the rest of the world had just signed a climate change treaty at the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
I remember being optimistic that the world could come together to fight the greatest threat to our planet and our own survival. We had done it before in overcoming other threats, like defeating Nazism in Europe and beating back horrific diseases like polio.
It's an interesting phenomenon to live in a town where the level of
public vitriol over nearly every political question runs incredibly
high. Here in "high Sonoran" Arizona, we enjoy an amazingly diverse and
oftentimes starkly polarized topography -- you can go from snow-capped
peaks to wind-blown deserts in very short order -- and the cultural
landscape seems to follow suit when issues such as immigration, health
care, education, or warfare are raised in the public dialogue.
I never much
liked the idea of arms control. During the Cold War, we managed our nuclear
arsenals rather than reduced them. We treated our nukes like huge, dangerous
animals. We restricted their movements but gave them ample care and feeding.
Until recently, getting rid of the animals altogether wasn't part of the
political agenda. After all, our leaders believed that these beasts were
useful. They scared away the covetous neighbors.
Let's say you occasionally despair for the future of the planet. In
that case, the place you need to be this week is the website for 350.org.
Every few minutes, something new arrives at our headquarters, where
young people hunched over laptops do their best to keep up with the
pace. News that activists in Afghanistan—Afghanistan—have organized a
rally for our big day of action on October 24. They'll assemble on a
hillside 20 kilometers from Kabul to write a huge message in the sand:
"Let Us Live: 350."
Halloween is around the corner, and children will soon be dressing up and chanting “trick or treat,” their demand for candy backed up by the threat of a prank. Climate-change activists, from pranksters to presidents, are doing the same. This past Monday, the activist-artist group The Yes Men staged another of its hoaxes, with one member posing as an official from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, leading what appeared to be a legitimate press conference and stating the chamber’s complete reversal on its historically adamant opposition to climate-change legislation.
Even two years ago, I was in complete despair about our chances of
fighting climate change. But something's changed. It's not the science,
which has gotten steadily worse. It's the first signs that the planet's
immune system--conscious citizens ready to make a difference--is
finally kicking in. Bloggers, in this metaphor, are key
antibodies--they recognize threats, and rally people to take the steps
needed.
They say that everyone who finally gets it about climate change has an "Oh, shit" moment--an instant when the full scientific implications become clear and they suddenly realize what a horrifically dangerous situation humanity has created for itself. Listening to the speeches, groundbreaking in their way, that President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao delivered September 22 at the UN Summit on Climate Change, I was reminded of my most recent "Oh, shit" moment.
