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The truth about global warming
Sandi Doughton, Seattle Times
John M. Wallace tried to steer Al Gore away from global warming.
The year was 1994 and the vice president was convinced rising temperatures were responsible for recent floods in the Mississippi River Valley.
He invited Wallace, a distinguished climate researcher from the University of Washington, to join a small group of scientists for a breakfast discussion in Washington, D.C.
As Gore sipped Diet Coke, Wallace nervously left the eggs on his own plate untouched.
“It was one of the more awkward audiences I’ve ever had,” he recalled with a chuckle. “I was trying, in a polite way, to tell him he was coming on too strong about global warming.”
Like many of his peers, Wallace wasn’t convinced greenhouse gases were altering the world’s climate, and he thought Gore was straining scientific credibility to score political points.
More than a decade later, Wallace still won’t blame global warming for any specific heat wave, drought or flood — including the recent devastating hurricanes. But he no longer doubts the problem is real and the risks profound.
“With each passing year the evidence has gotten stronger — and is getting stronger still.”
1995 was the hottest year on record until it was eclipsed by 1997 — then 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. Melting ice has driven Alaska Natives from seal-hunting areas used for generations. Glaciers around the globe are shrinking so rapidly many could disappear before the middle of the century.
As one study after another has pointed to carbon dioxide and other man-made emissions as the most plausible explanation, the cautious community of science has embraced an idea initially dismissed as far-fetched. The result is a convergence of opinion rarely seen in a profession where attacking each other’s work is part of the process. Every major scientific body to examine the evidence has come to the same conclusion: The planet is getting hotter; man is to blame; and it’s going to get worse.
Yet the message doesn’t seem to be getting through to the public and policy-makers.
(9 October 2005)
The major story in an outstanding special report by the Seattle Times. Related stories from the Seattle Times are listed below. Recommended by Lisa Hyams at Gristmill. Other articles in the special report:
Is warming making hurricanes more ferocious?
Blame the sun?
Hockey stick broken?
Satellite puzzle solved
Urban heat island
Finding agreement about global warming
Related story in Portland Oregonian: Nine scientists warn planet is heating up, changing fast
As polar ice turns to water, dreams of treasure abound
Krauss, Myers, Revkin and Romero, NY Times
CHURCHILL, Manitoba – It seems harsh to say that bad news for polar bears is good for Pat Broe. Mr. Broe, a Denver entrepreneur, is no more to blame than anyone else for a meltdown at the top of the world that threatens Arctic mammals and ancient traditions and lends credibility to dark visions of global warming.
Still, the newest study of the Arctic ice cap – finding that it faded this summer to its smallest size ever recorded – is beginning to make Mr. Broe look like a visionary for buying this derelict Hudson Bay port from the Canadian government in 1997. Especially at the price he paid: about $7.
…With major companies and nations large and small adopting similar logic, the Arctic is undergoing nothing less than a great rush for virgin territory and natural resources worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Even before the polar ice began shrinking more each summer, countries were pushing into the frigid Barents Sea, lured by undersea oil and gas fields and emboldened by advances in technology. But now, as thinning ice stands to simplify construction of drilling rigs, exploration is likely to move even farther north.
…”It’s the positive side of global warming, if there is a positive side,” said Ron Lemieux, the transportation minister of Manitoba, whose provincial government is investing millions in Churchill.
If the melting continues, as many Arctic experts expect, the mass of floating ice that has crowned the planet for millions of years may largely disappear for entire summers this century. Instead of the white wilderness that killed explorers and defeated navigators for centuries, the world would have a blue pole on top, a seasonally open sea nearly five times the size of the Mediterranean.
(10 October 2005)
Jon S. rightfully skewers this insane article at Peak Energy (Seattle). Shame on the NY Times for clapping its hands in glee at the rape of the planet. What a contrast to the in-depth, responsible coverage by the Seattle Times (see previous articles). Related article from the Oil and Gas Journal: Arctic melt brings new E&P promise.-BA
Insurance and Global Warming
Jamais Cascio, WorldChanging
The global insurance industry leads the corporate world in acknowledging the reality of climate change. As we’ve noted before, the insurance industry (and the re-insurance companies, who insure the insurers against catastrophic claims, in particular) will bear the brunt of any global warming disasters; it’s entirely in their interest to examine the science behind global warming as closely as possible, and not to play political games.
(5 October 2005)
New book by Tim Flannery
Weather Makers: The History & Future Impact of Climate Change
Tim Flannery
Most of us suspect that climate change is happening, but is it a terrible threat to our world or an exaggerated beat up? Or is it something in between – an issue that humanity must eventually face, but not yet?
In this groundbreaking and essential new book, Tim Flannery argues passionately for the urgent need to address – NOW – the implications of a global climate change that is damaging all life on earth and endangering our very survival.
This book is unimpeachable in its authority, deftly and accessibly written in its vision for what each of us can do to avoid catastrophe. It is a global call to arms, laying out plainly if not controversially what we know, what we think might happen, and what tools we have available to us to make a difference. The Weather Makers will change your life.
It is a difficult subject and hard for people to evaluate dispassionately because it entails deep political and industrial implications, and because it arises from the very core processes of our civilisation’s success. Right now our fate is in our hands, for we are the weather makers, and we already possess the tools required to avoid catastrophic climate change.
Three edited extracts from the book have appeared in the press.
Extract: Civilisation’s darkest hour
Extract: Taking it personally
Extract: On Nuclear power
Weather Makers homepage.
(October 2005)
Mentioned by David Roberts at Gristmill.
