While some have predicted the sure demise of legislation to cap and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Safe Climate Act will pass. Whether we rise to the occasion or allow the greatest political buy-off in history by the fossil fuel industries and delay this critical legislation has yet to be seen. One thing is clear: People will be clamoring for far more action much faster in coming years as the masses realize what scientists know today. With the media largely bought-off by the coal, oil and auto industries, there is woefully little coverage of what should be daily front-page news as the biggest emergency ever known to humanity.
There is no question that we are in the abrupt climate change that the Pentagon warned us about in their 2004 report that found that global warming vastly eclipses the threat of terrorism. We are triggering numerous natural mechanisms that are causing a runaway greenhouse effect that threatens to wipe out most species alive and kill billions of people this century, according to top scientists.
The record ice melt of the summer of 2007 should be a major wake-up call to everyone, as it was to scientists. Predictions of an ice-free Arctic Ocean went from 2080 three years ago to 2040 last year to as early as 2012. Open water absorbs 90 percent of the sun's energy, while sea ice reflects 10-20 percent. Thus, the melting contributes to more warming. Much of the Arctic Ocean was 30 degrees above average last summer.
Tens of thousands of walrus were unable to reach the ice, which was 700 miles from where it should have been, and had to turn back for the first time in history last summer. They swam all the way back to land and climbed up onto the shore of Russia and Northwest Alaska. Thousands died in stampedes.
Most Arctic species are now threatened with extinction by climate change. And those who think this will only affect the polar bear are quite wrong.
Those opposed to this act are climate terrorists, contributing to the mass murder of future generations. The science is extraordinarily clear and far more studied than anything else in history. George Bush, George Voinovich and the others working to derail this critical piece of legislation will be seen as the Adolph Hitlers of our day, contributing to a holocaust vastly eclipsing the horrors of World War II.
Those thinking such words are overly harsh need to take another look at the latest findings. We are not talking about a few degrees. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said we could see an 11-degree temperature rise this century, and their predictions thus far have vastly underestimated the actual effects.
Lifestyles are not the issue; survival is. The wonderful thing is that this will also solve the problem of the skyrocketing cost of oil and coal. It means we will rapidly shift to efficiency and renewables and create good, clean, sustainable jobs in a smog- and pollution-free future, if we can make the changes fast enough to avert turning our planet into a hellish climate of death, disease and climate disaster destruction.
Chad Kister is the author of several books and a resident of Athens.
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Letter to the Editor
