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| Time to warm to global warming |
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| Written by Elizabette Guecamburu - Hometown Girl / | |
| Wednesday, 31 October 2007 | |
 Elizabette Gueamburu / Hometown Girl I mean no offense to rock-dwellers — I’m sure living under a rock is lovely, however dim and spider-ridden it might be. However, as world ocean levels rise, weather patterns turn chaotic and entire species of animals and plants become endangered, even the rock-dweller eventually will come face-to-face with reality: Global warming is here to stay. The global average surface temperature has risen by more than 1 degree during the past 100 years. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations-chartered organization in Geneva, Switzerland, the rise in temperature was caused by human-induced environmental changes — namely, skyrocketing levels of fossil-fuel emissions and widespread deforestation. IPCC projections indicate that average temperatures will likely rise another 2 to 11.5 degrees during this century alone. Along with rising sea levels, extreme weather changes and species extinctions, elevating temperatures will affect agricultural yields and glaciers, and could change the habitat ranges of disease vectors, such as mosquitoes. Discussion of global warming used to be limited to Mensa-candidate scientists — folks with more PhD degrees than televisions. That isn’t the case anymore. Global warming has been thrust into the mainstream and into the consciousness of everyday people. Frankly, it should have happened long ago. Scientists have warned us of this pending phenomenon for many years, but their efforts fell upon deaf ears. In fact, as early as 1824, French scientist Joseph Fourier had already discovered that a buildup of certain gases in the atmosphere could cause the Earth’s temperature to rise — and he coined the term “greenhouse effect.” It’s a shame the implications of Fourier’s research weren’t used sooner before we damaged our planet further. But we can’t change the past; the damage has been done. It must be noted that the situation isn’t hopeless. There is a lot that we everyday Americans can do to mitigate the damage our ancestors have wreaked upon us. The United States is the world’s top consumer of energy. By reducing our use of fossil fuels and expanding the use of renewable alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar power, we can go a long way toward stemming the damage of climate change. Gasoline-thirsty SUVs and large passenger cars could be replaced with more energy-efficient hybrid vehicles. The use of passenger trains and long-distance bullet trains could take millions of commuter vehicles off the road and hundreds of planes out of the sky. More efforts could also be made to recycle. I particularly would like to see a reduction in the annoying flood of junk mail that crams my mailbox. How many trees must die for me to have yet another pre-approved credit card application that I don’t even want? One thing is certain: Now is the time for action. We must leave our rock-dwelling days behind us and face our new reality. Global warming is happening, whether we are ready for it or not. Elizabette Guecamburu is a writer and native Patterson resident. She accepts e-mails at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Comments
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The questions for me are: to what extent has human activity augmented this change; even if we make the changes some propose, to what extent must we still adapt; and to what extent are our efforts at climate change another reflection of our belief we must control nature?
For me, the reality is that we must adapt, in so many ways. This isn't license to continue to pollute and poison our planet. It is all we have.