Chicago Indymedia : http://chicago.indymedia.org/archive
Chicago Indymedia

Commentary :: Environment

How Bad Is the Climate Situation ...... Really?

I became aware of the power of the climate
decades ago in college classes that were
the most interesting that I had. The professor
was not talking about 'Global Warming' or
'Climate Change' at all, only about the
immensity of the oceans and their affect on
the climate and weather.
I've since been collecting articles from around the world about
recent research into the warming that has taken place (not modeling,
which is somewhat suspect) and I've become amazed at how little of
this research has made it's way into the US corporate media.

After two years of google alerts for "climate change" and "global
Warming" I have sifted through hundreds of articles looking for info
about the research being conducted.

The research that has currently been coming from the scientists
who are collecting data in the field is showing that the warming is
accelerating......at a rate that is alarming the scientists. It is happening
much faster than they anticipated.

THE WARMING IS ACCELERATING ITSELF - POSITIVE FEEDBACKS

With melting at the ice caps, there is less reflection of the Sun's rays
back into space, and the darker water absorbs more heat.

The melting of the tundra is producing more CO2.

The oceans are reaching their limits of CO2 absorption and are now
starting to release CO2 back into the atmosphere.

Don't get caught up in the arguement about whether the warming is caused
by man or not. It is a moot point. It is a ruse made to confuse people and
to avoid liability by the energy giants who are not willing to take the world
off of it's oil addiction.

There are a number of things that act on the climate such as the "positive
feedbacks" just mentioned. But they are cumulative. It matters very little
the percentage of each contribution.

The scientists always give projections for decades into the future,
that have a high and a low probability, and they expect that it will
be somewhere in between. But recently their projections have proven
to be too rosy, even the worst projections are being shown to be too
low, almost certainly because of the positive feedbacks starting to
kick in to the equation sooner than expected.

TWO LONGTIME OBSERVERS OF GLOBAL WARMING

Clive Hamilton, author of 'Scorched', wrote an article published recently
in the Couriermail of Australia:

-(scientists) "have for years systematically understated the dangers.

-Climate scientists have been afraid to talk about the true extent of
-the dangers of global warming. Those who have looked closely at
-what the scientists are concluding believe that the truth is so
-frightening that, if told, it will stop people from acting, rather than
-stimulate them to do more.

-There is a cavernous gap between the urgency of the warnings from
-science and the political response to it. The concern among the
-public is way ahead of that of our politicians but it remains true that
-the public simply has no grasp of the magnitude of the disaster that
-looms ahead of us."(1)

What is even scarier is that a very large part of the public still has
felt no detrimental affects of the warming and are still in the mode
of - You talk about global warming? Last winter I froze my butt off.

The average citizen does not want to believe that there is anything
wrong, and they will side with the deniers who give them hope (false
hope) that things are just fine. They won't spend the time that it takes
to understand the science of climate change, which has come a very
long way in just the past few decades.......indeed, just the past few
years.

George Mongoit, author of "Heat" (which is about global warming)
recently gave a speech in which he said, in so many words, that we
are finding out that the book is terribly out of date:

-What we need now".... is a much tougher message than any that I've
-put out before..... what I thought were rather bold and revolutionary
-proposals in my book "Heat", those proposals don't go nearly far enough.
-Those proposals have been superseded and we need to start thinking on
-a different scale altogether..........

-We have very very little time in which to act. We have very very little time
-in which to bring about the largest economical and political transformation
-the world has ever seen."(2)

Here is a list of articles of research science on the ground (not models,
which are somewhat suspect) with the important quotes and links to the
articles which were gathered from around the world by google alerts and
a few science websites.

portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/09/364754.shtml

These articles should have been given much air time and print by the
corporate media, but of course were not. Just count how many times
the scientists say such things as "It's happening much faster than we
anticipated."

************

References:

1) Hidden doom of climate change, Sept. 9, 07
www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22383639-27197,00.html

2) George Monbiot Updates His Global Warming Book, 8/28/07
portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/08/364255.shtml
 
 

Donate

Views

Account Login

Media Centers

 

This site made manifest by dadaIMC software