As the Escalator-in-Chief makes final preparations for his next pack of lies Address to the Nation, there is a subject that needs to be addressed even more vitally than our steadily deteriorating situation in Iraq and the GWOT (Global War on Terror).
That issue is Climate Change.
Just like on "24", the clock is ticking, and I fear that if we don't take significant action this year it just might be too late.
You don't have to be an alarmist or a scientist to see the signs, they're literally everywhere.
From Thinkprogress June 26th.
"Climate experts have started to worry that the ice cap is disappearing in ways that computer models had not predicted." Greenland’s glaciers are melting twice as fast as they were five years ago. Should all of the ice sheet thaw, sea levels could rise by 21 feet and swamp the world’s coastal cities.
From August 11th.
Greenland’s icecap "is melting faster than ever before on record, and the pace is speeding year by year," new data shows. "The consequence is already evident in a small but ominous rise in sea levels around the world, a pace that is also accelerating."
"Ice is melting so fast in the Arctic that the North Pole will be in the open sea in 30 years," a team of NASA-funded scientists found. "Researchers assessing the impact of carbon emissions on the world’s climate have calculated that late summer in the Arctic will be ice-free by 2040 or earlier - well within a lifetime."
Even a few in the Bush Administration seems to have warmed to the idea. On December 27th.
"The Bush administration has decided to propose listing the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, putting the U.S. government on record as saying that global warming could drive one of the world’s most recognizable animals out of existence."
On December 30th we saw an enormous section of the Canadian Ice Sheet have been to melt and sheer off creating an Iceberg larger than Manhattan.
"A chunk of ice bigger than the area of Manhattan broke from an ice shelf in Canada’s far north and could wreak havoc if it starts to float westward toward oil-drilling regions and shipping lanes next summer." It was the "largest such break in nearly three decades," and global warming "likely played a role."
Today January 23rd.
The new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to be released next week will show that "[h]uman-caused global warming is here — visible in the air, water and melting ice — and is destined to get much worse in the future." "This isn’t a smoking gun; climate is a battalion of intergalactic smoking missiles," said Andrew Weaver, a study co-author.
But this is the kicker from a peice I originally wrote last year on the how the Electric Car was wiped out in California.
The recent Discovery Channel Primer on Global Warming covers a great deal of the subject in depth.
In 2005, scientists announced major discoveries about Earth’s climate. Multiple Greenland glaciers suddenly leaped into retreat, spilling larger and larger amounts of ice into the sea. A similar pattern has been seen on the Antarctic Peninsula. Studies of the past 50 years of hurricanes were made public and revealed the storms have been steadily getting more intense and destructive. Hurricane Katrina brought that point home to the U.S. by nearly wiping New Orleans off the map. Scientists also announced the record retreat in Arctic sea ice, and a measurable slowing of the thermohaline circulation in the Atlantic – the deep ocean current that drives the Gulf Stream, moderates temperatures worldwide, and keeps Europe from having a climate like that of Alaska.
All of these changes are modifying our weather in a variety of ways, larges swaths of former farmland in China have turned into desert. But most frighteningly, the Amazon Rainforest appears to be in extremely grave danger after suffering the worst drought in decades. After years of extensive deforestation - and stealth logging - the shifting patterns of precipitation have left much of the forest in drought for the past two years. Some studies indicate that a majority of this forest would be able to survive much more of this.
Amazon rainforest could become a desert And that could speed up global warming with 'incalculable consequences', says alarming new research. Studies by the blue-chip Woods Hole Research Centre, carried out in Amazonia, have concluded that the forest cannot withstand more than two consecutive years of drought without breaking down. And that process, which would be irreversible, could begin as early as next year.
Next year begins the third consecutive year of drought in the Amazon. Tests run by some concerned scientist have shown that during the second year of drought, the tree dig deep roots in search of moisture - this has already occured in much of the forest -- in the third year - the trees begin to die.
By the end of the year the trees had released more than two-thirds of the carbon dioxide they have stored during their lives, helping to act as a break on global warming. Instead they began accelerating the climate change.
... the Amazon now appears to be entering its second successive year of drought, raising the possibility that it could start dying next year. The immense forest contains 90 billion tons of carbon, enough in itself to increase the rate of global warming by 50 per cent.
If the rainforest begins to die, it could arguaby begin an irreversable cascade effect which would dramatically accelerate the current rate of climate change to a catastrophic degree. All of the negative effects we've already seen, from flooding to wildfires and increasing powerful oceans storms would grow worse and more deadly.
This is serious people, deadly serious.
Folks, THIS IS NEXT YEAR - right here, right now!
The time for talk and discussion is long past, it's time for action.
Today Red State Rebel described the latest version of Al Gore's slideshow, as shown in his Academy Award Nominated film.
To the skeptics, he shows evidence of glacial earthquakes in Greenland - seven in 1993, quadruple that in 2005. He shows studies that revealed how, of 928 peer-reviewed scientific studies, none disputed global warming - but 53% of 636 articles in the popular press did so (including this morning's Page 1 story in the Idaho Statesman). He also roundly debunks the false choices between a vibrant economy and a healthy environment, noting how growing legions of CEOs are embracing the idea that we can have both.
The Corporate World is indeed ready to address this issue, as they understand the financial benefit of holding the patents to the future.
Corporate giants urge Bush to address climate crisis.
"The growing consensus to take national action against climate change received a major boost Monday when 10 leading U.S. corporations — including General Electric, Alcoa, DuPont and Pacific Gas & Electric — launched a coalition with four environmental groups to push for mandatory federal emissions controls." The corporate leaders pledged to work "for specific targets and timetables to reduce current levels of carbon dioxide and airborne pollutants by 60 to 80 percent" by 2050. Details on the partnership HERE.
The Development of Alternative Fuels and Clean Energy must become mandatory for America. We produce the vast majority of Green house gases and have to take responsibility for that by aggressively reversing the trends I note above.
We No Longer Have the Luxury of Waiting 5 or Ten Years.
We already have the technology - all we have to do is implement it. And we have to do it now.
Fortunately Congress has begun to act.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is moving to create a special House panel to address global warming, headed by climate champion Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA). The decision, "to some degree, would sidestep" some powerful committee chairmen, specifically energy chairman John Dingell (D-MI), who is less aggressive on global warming issues.
But not so fortunately, the Senate is less likely to be so bold.
"Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) dropped his bid yesterday for the ranking member spot on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, leaving the door open for Sen. James Inhofe (Okla.) to claim the position without opposition." The position will give Inhofe a platform to continue claiming global warming is the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."
Contact Congress Now at their Switchboard : (202) 224-3121 Tell them you support swift and serious action on this issue. (You can reach any Senator or Congressman thru this number)
Vyan
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