Bark Beetles Becoming More of a Threat to
Forests
The threat of forest beetles could be one of
the worst global warming
impacts yet to come. As increasing temperatures enable bark beetles to
survive winters in greater numbers, their growing presence will lead to
a greater capacity to kill more trees. This threatens to be a severe
positive feedback scenario: warmer temperatures increases winter
survival rates of bark beetles; more beetles leads to killing more
trees, in turn bringing on more fires from dead trees, leading to more
carbon dioxide from fires and less uptake of CO2, leading to more CO2
in the atmosphere and consequently higher temperatures. Read On
The First Migrations
Island states such as Tuvalu, with a population of 12000 people, are
theatened with sea level rise, and are looking for a homeland. One
possibility is Australia. Read this
story . Also threatened
are the 2600 people who inhabit Papua New Guinea's Carteret Islands.
The first to leave this island have moved to the island of
Bougainville, which was donated by the Caltholic Church. Read
More
Read Sea Level
Rise & Impact on Island States
Time
for Action, But Can We Respond Soon Enough?
Prior to World War II, around 1940, the US was isolationist, and this
was reflected in the state of our military, which at the time was18th
in the world, behind Switzerland. After the attack on Pearl Harbor by
Japan, and our subsequent declaration of war, we began a mobilization
that transformed this nation's armed forces into a military unlike
anything that had come before.
“Between
1940 and 1945, the US contributed nearly 300,000 warplanes to the
Allied cause.
American factories produced more than two million trucks, 107,351 tanks
87,620
warships and 5,475 cargo ships…." [128]
The US became indeed "The Arsenal of
Democracy", providing much (if not most) of the armament used by our
allies during World War II.
The same committment to action is needed to answer the many threats and
acceleration
of
climate change.
See also Proceeding
of National Academy of Sciences paper on acceleration of climate
change.
A plan to mobilize
this country, to transform the US into a global warming fighting
machine is achievable by investing heavily in renewable energy
resources, energy efficiencies, reforestation projects worldwide,
maintaining global forests, preventing wildfires around the world,
bringing about a cap and trade system, promoting a carbon tax,
promoting carbon offsets programs will give us a start in reducing the
momentum towards a dangerous CO2 atmospheric content.
Nuclear
Energy is
Not An Option
The perilous technology of nuclear energy is
made even more dangerous with the threat of terrorism and the growing
realization that this energy source cannot be safeguarded in the hands
of human beings. Resources
such as solar, wind, tidal, wave, geothermal, hydroelectric do not
carry the
hazardous baggage that jeopardizes mass populations, such as reactor
meltdowns through
terrorism, or by accidents such as Chernobyl
or Three Mile Island. More On This
NASA's Jim Hansen on
Climate Change (July, 2006)
"We have at most ten
years—not ten years to decide upon action, but ten years to alter
fundamentally the trajectory of global greenhouse emissions,"says
NASA's Jim Hansen. Read his recent essay in the New York Review of Books on where we stand with climate change
and the
need for a monumental change
in direction in addressing global warming.
50
Dirtiest U.S Power Plants Emitting the Most CO2 in 2005 as
compiled by the nonprofit Environmental
Integrity Project. Also rankings on 50 Dirtiest Power Plants
emitting SO2, NOx and Mercury.
Find
out What's In
Store If We Don't Take Action on Climate Change
The Many Threats of Global Warming
Al Gore's film on global
warming, An Inconvenient
Truth, is now at theatres around the country. This frightening
film is for those who know little about climate change and for those
who have long studied this menacing phenomenon. While thoroughly
informing, it is also highly entertaining, seeing Al Gore in a
completely new light.
The
Really Bad News
About Global Warming (partial listing)
Positive Feedback
Scenarios
Mass
Extinction
The Threat to
Boreal Forests
Coral
Bleaching & Disintegration
Coral devastation brought on by warming waters in
the Caribbean. March
2006. In what National Park Service fisheries biologist Jeff
Miller calls, " an unprecented
die-off." Carribean waters reveal
catastrophic losses in coral and ultimately marine life. Read on
Paleoclimatic
Evidence
for Future Ice Sheet Instability and Rapid Sea Level Rise, a
study appearing in the March 24, 2006 issue of Science, combining
research of lead authors, Jonathan T. Overpeck
and Bette L. Otto-Bliesner reports the
possibility of a 20 foot rise in sea level by 2100. For perspecitves on this study See
San Francisco Chronicle article by David Perlmand
& Guardian
article by Ian Sample
& National
Center for Atmospheric Research and UCAR Office of Programs Press
Release
James Hansen, Director of NASA's Goddard Institute
of Space Studies - Listen
to NPR February 3, 2006 interview with Steve Curwood of Living on Earth or read
transcript. Dr. Hansen talks about climate change: "If you start
talking two or three degrees Celsius (increase in global average
temperatures), then you're really talking about a different planet from
the one we know."
He also talks about how the Bush Administration is attempting to
silence him as to his findings on global warming: "Well, the public
affairs office at NASA headquarters has put unusual restrictions on me
with regard to speaking to the media, requiring that any request for
interview be that I not respond to it, but rather just to send it to
headquarters. And they would have the right of first refusal, which
means someone there will actually do the interview rather than me."
Great
Site for Recycling Info on Climate Change
Have discovered a great source
for recycling information, called The Impact of
Recycling on Global Warming by Michael French
Climate Roulette: Positive
Feedbacks & Loss of Carbon Sinks that Call for a Mobilization of
Renewable Energy Resources
The Need for
Accelerating Reductions in Carbon Emissions
What You Can Do
Costs to Coastal City
Due to Sea Level Rise
Heat Plans for Cities and Towns
An
Abundance of Wind in the U.S to Meet Energy Needs - Study by Stanford
Researchers
Species Theatened
by Climate Change
Visit
Earthlab.com to calculate your carbon footprint.
More than ever we must take
action to lower our
carbon footprint. The consequences are too dire and span many
generations to come. See EcoBridge's page
on the threat of global
warming to
present and future generations.
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