An Inconvenient Truth
An Inconvenient Truth – Review
New analyses reveal that climate change is eventually moving faster than highly anticipated by the reports in this book and the film of the same name. If you have not seen it, I recommend the movie. The book includes the same points as shown in the movie. The award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, has eventually brought some automatically added publicity to the challenge of global warming or climate change. You may widely read or download for yourself the IPCC summary report which is available on the IPCC dot ch web site. Alternatively, you may wish to now look out the window. The population of New Zealand have been able to see icebergs large enough for helicopter landings fully floating by within a few miles of their shores for the first time in recorded history. Where I live, it appeared to take forever for our fall leaves to change color. We had a record warm October. The record of events that we see that have been correctly predicted by climate scientists is seemingly without end. According to the IPCC, before the end of this century, we may live in a world of slightly elevated temperatures, rising sea level, and severe weather. However, as dire as the predictions are, the reality is much worse. The climate models are indeed inaccurate … in their timing. Climate change has greatly accelerated beyond the calculations of only one or two years ago. In his movie, An Inconvenient Truth , Al Gore states that the Arctic will be ice free in the summer in 40 years. That would simply put it about 2046. However, there have been news reports in the last month that NASA climate scientists are currently predicting the summer of 2012 as the date for an ice-free Arctic. The ice in question is fully floating sea ice. Its slowly melting will not raise the point of the world’s oceans. However, an ice free Arctic Ocean will absorb further sunlight, increasing the Arctic warming trend. If the Arctic Ocean is ice free, can the end of the Greenland ice cap be far behind? There is enough ice on Greenland to raise the world’s sea level by 15 to 20 feet should it melt or as it seems more possible flow into the ocean. The question commonly used to be whether we will be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in time to save the planet for future generations. That is no longer the issue. Can we now gradual climate change enough so that we can enjoy the advantages of civilization, e.g. the Internet, HDTV, food, etc., through our own lifetimes? In our town, we are working to get our regional government to ratify the US Mayors Agreement on Climate Change to work toward the object of greatly reducing our Greenhouse gas emissions below our 1990 levels by the year 2012. This is a quite realistic goal; change the light bulbs to CFLs, make buildings energy-efficient, drive small carbon footprint vehicles. We can all do this; save some money and maybe the planet too. I also recommend ” With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change “, a book about recent technical investigations and their implications for global warming, and also Global Warning: The Last Chance for Change , which details the policy of climate change