Global Warming a Reality according to UN

Since I just posted about this and got some minor feedback, I thought this would be an interesting post....

Warming 'already changing world'
From the BBC

Climate change is already having major impacts on the natural world, a UN report is set to announce.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) believes there is also a discernible, though less marked, impact on human societies.

The IPCC is to release a summary of its report on Friday but talks on wording have continued late into the night.

Officials said there were differences between various countries on the strength of the language.

China and Russia had also raised concerns over some passages of the 21-page summary, the official said.

The last-minute wrangling is likely to affect the degree of certainty in the final version, the BBC's Richard Black reports, but not the overall direction.

Water shortages

Draft versions seen by BBC News warn it will be hard for societies to adapt to all the likely climate impacts.

The report is set to say that a temperature rise above 1.5C from 1990 levels would put about one-third of species at risk of extinction.

More than one billion people would be at greater risk of water shortages, primarily because of the melting of mountain glaciers and ice fields which act as natural reservoirs.

The scientific work reviewed by IPCC scientists includes more than 29,000 pieces of data on observed changes in physical and biological aspects of the natural world.

Eighty-five percent of these, it believes, are consistent with a warming world.

Read more here...

An Inconvenient Truth

This week is "Belmont Goes Green" week at Belmont, and thus there have been several events to supplement that title. On Tuesday night, I was able to view a screening of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, his documentary to raise awareness about global warming. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone that, well...lives on this earth. I think it was very well done (though definately not worthy of it's Oscar bid... just a political statement), though definately overly corny during Gore's back stories that interrupted his lecture. But this is a moral issue, not a political issue. It's a shame and an outrage to me that evangelical Christians are the primary force that are arguing against global warming. Of all groups, we should be the most concerned with this issue. God has given us this planet and made us responsible for it. It's our job and duty to God to take care of this place. I even believe there's a direct connection between the land and our spirituality. The Hebrews believed that everything is spiritual and that somehow there was a connection between the physical and the metaphysical. I happen to believe in our forefathers of our faith as well. Why wouldn't we be concerned about global warming? If it's real, which is pretty much the concensus, then we got some work to do. Even if it's not, isn't it better to be prepared than left with massive death and destructions on our hands? A cleaner earth shouldn't be the cause of debate. It's kind of obvious. But wait, that's gonna cost me something? As I quote directly from a U.S. delegate: "The American lifestyle is not up for negotiation." Wow. I don't understand, even if for some reason you have a logical base against global warming, people (mostly Christians) continually mock and ridicule Al Gore, though. He's attempting to do, what he considers, at least, some good in this world. We have enough people doing terrible things these days, but when someone believes in something so much and is so passionate about an issue that they believe will make the world a better place, as Al Gore is, we should commend them! Or bash them in bible studies. That's the Jesus Way.

One shocking thing I learned: Up until the time Gore was born, all the people on the earth only reached up to 2 billion people. It took from the beginning of the world until recently for the world to see 2 billion people. By the time he dies, the world is estimated to have 9 billion people on it. That's crazy to think about! Where are the resources to cover this increase coming from?

One thing I wished Gore covered more: economics and global warming. He glossed over it with sort of a joke and then later with just blowing it off: "Other countries are doing it." This is a real issue in the global warming debate, and I wasn't really satisfied with how he handled the issue. Give some real life solutions to how U.S. businesses won't have to go bankrupt by having environmentally friendly policies.