Download Inconvenient/Inclement Weather (Al Gore`s Fight

Inconvenient Truths and Convenient
Lies: the Global Climate Change Issue
By Cynthia McMeans (and primarily from Al Gore’s An
Inconvenient Truth: A Global Warning book, DVD, web site)
This is about our fight to
save planet Earth from the
disastrous political, social,
and economic consequences
of: human waste, apathy,
and complacency; lack of
vision on the part of world
and national leadership;
mismanagement of energy
resources; superstitious and
unreasonable fears about
new economic paradigms
and global realities; the
failure and refusal to study
or implement programs
focused on renewable
energy sources; partisan
politics; and U.S. addiction
to artificially cheap and
nonrenewable fossil fuels.
Al Gore takes his
show on the road
(in China)
What is Global Warming?
Carbon dioxide and other gases warm the surface of the
planet naturally by trapping atmospheric solar heat,
keeping the Earth habitable; but when we burn fossil
fuels such as coal, gas, and oil and clear forests, we
dramatically increase the amount of carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere and temperatures rise quickly.
The vast majority of scientists agree
that global warming is real, it is
already happening, and that it is
the result of human activities, and
not some natural occurrence. The
scientific evidence is now
overwhelming and undeniable.
Left:
Hurricane
Katrina, 2005
Right:
Malarial
Mosquito
*The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has
almost doubled in the last thirty years.
*At least 279 species of plants and animals are
already responding by moving closer to the poles.
*Malaria has spread to higher altitudes in places like
the Colombian Andes, 7,000 feet above sea level.
An Inconvenient Truth: A Global Warning
Former Vice President AL GORE makes a strong and compelling
case that global climate change is real, it has been happening for
decades, and is beginning to spiral out of control:
The ten hottest years on record have all
occurred since 1990; the glaciers are in full
retreat everywhere; the famed “Snows of
Kilimanjaro” are almost gone; at current
rates, the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free by
2050; if either the ice covering Greenland or
the ice on the western side of Antarctica
goes—both very real possibilities—the
global sea level could rise by 20 feet; that
rise would devastate coastal areas all over
the world, leaving at least 100 million
people homeless
Science Magazine’s
analysis of 928
peer-reviewed
scientific articles
discussing “climate
change”
• All agreed (100%) with the
scientific consensus that “climate
change” is a real phenomenon
• There is no actual scientific
dispute about the evidence
• Any “controversy” has been
created or manufactured by
companies with strong financial
interests against recognizing and
dealing with global climate
change (i.e. Exxon-Mobil and
other major polluters), just as the
tobacco companies tried for
decades to mislead the public
about the link between smoking
and lung cancer
Why have people been so
slow to respond to the
worldwide problems
associated with global
climate change?
*There is a natural human
tendency to avoid thinking about
subjects that involve psychic
pain, and the idea that human
civilization is colliding with the
Earth’s environment and life as
we know it, is a very painful
reality and extremely difficult to
face
*The complexity of the issue
can be an obstacle; it is easier
to believe in some sort of
“conspiracy theory” than to
study the matter from a
scientific perspective; it is
also simpler to remain in
denial about global climate
change because to
acknowledge it means you
must change your behavior
and take action
THE ARCTIC AND THE ANTARTIC
The melting of the North
Pole is one of the most
urgent catastrophes facing
us, as it is merely a thin ice
cap. The Arctic (North Pole)
is ocean surrounded by land,
while the Antarctic is land
surrounded by ocean.
Antarctic ice is 10,000 feet
thick, but Arctic ice is less
than 10 feet thick.
ARCTIC AND ANTARTIC
We have lost 40% of the Arctic mass
in the last 40 years; and as this ice
melts, a dramatic change occurs in
the relationship of the Earth’s
surface to the Sun. The ice reflects
90% of the incoming Sun’s energy
like a mirror; but after it melts, the
open seawater absorbs 90% of the
Sun’s energy—a significant
alteration. An increasingly rapid
feedback loop is then put in motion,
that magnifies and speeds up the
melting process.
The North Polar ice cap is in grave
danger now and the nearby great ice
mound of Greenland is under increasing
pressure from rising temperatures, also.
If it were to melt or to break off into the
sea, it would raise sea levels 20 feet
worldwide..
The west Antarctic
ice shelf at the South
Pole is propped up
against islands that
allow it to be
affected similarly by
the warming ocean,
such that melting or
breaking off and
sliding into the
ocean here would
also raise sea levels
by 20 feet
worldwide
The Greenland Ice
Sheet dominates land
ice in the Arctic.
Over the past two
decades the melt area
has increased about
16% from 1979 to
2002, with the total
surface area melt on
the Greenland Ice
Sheet breaking all
past records in 2002.
The Arctic Climate
Impact Assessment models indicate regional warming will be
much higher by the end of the 21st century, putting us past the
threshold for the long-term disintegration of that ice sheet.
Projected Arctic Sea Ice Melt During
the 21st Century
The Arctic’s climate is changing more rapidly and persistently
than at any time since the beginning of civilization. Careful
investigations of the strength and patterns of change indicate
human influences are responsible for most of the changes since
the mid-20th century.
Larsen B ice
shelf breakup,
Antarctic
Peninsula,
March 7, 2002
Disappearing sea ice and warmer temperatures around the
Antarctic Peninsula are causing an 80% drop in the numbers of
Krill, leading to a devastating food chain crash. This affects fish,
penguins, sea birds, whales, and other animals, as well as the
commercial fishing industry. The breakup of the Larsen B ice
shelf in 2002 also released several glaciers, increasing their speed
up to eight fold, and dumping their loads into the Weddell Sea
contributing significantly to rising sea level.
The Arctic (left) and Antarctic (right) Ice Caps on 2 January,
2007. The Arctic Ice is mainly on ocean surrounded by
continents. Conversely, the Antarctic Ice is largely on a
continent surrounded by ocean. We live on a planet whose
surface is dominated by water in solid, liquid, and gas phases.
Mount Kilimanjaro
Tanzania (East Central
Coast of Africa)
Top: Mount Kilimanjaro, 1975
Below: Mount Kilimanjaro, 2005
Within 10 years there
will be no more “Snows
of Kilimanjaro”
Left: Political Map of African countries
Right: Africa and political divisions, highlighting
Tanzania and its location within Africa
Almost all the mountain glaciers in the world
are now melting, many quite rapidly
Changes in Grinnell Glacier in Glacier
National Park, Montana; arrows
indicate the previous extent of ice
Valdez Glacier in Alaska has thinned
by 300 feet over the last century.
The unvegetated regions along its
margins have been exposed
primarily due to melting since 1980
Map of changes in the thickness of mountain glaciers
since 1970. Orange and brown colors indicate thinning,
blue colors indicate thickening of ice.
Below, left: Comparison photos of Muir and Riggs Glaciers in
Alaska between 1941. During this time, the Muir glacier,
which was >70 meters thick, has retreated out of the frame.
Below, right: Comparison photos of the McCarty Glacier in
Alaska. The glacier is no longer visible in the recent image.
Below, Left: Satellite image of Gangotri Glacier, India, showing
its decline since maximum size during the Little Ice Age. The
glacier is receding or melting at the rate of 23m (75ft) per year.
Below, Right: (Top: Patagonia glacier on the tip of South
America, 1928) (Bottom: That vast expanse of ice in the Upsala
Glacier, Argentina-2004-is now gone)
Himalayan Glaciers
The rapid melting first
increases the volume of water
in rivers and causes
widespread flooding; then in a
few decades, the water levels
of rivers decline significantly.
Global warming is causing
This means massive economic
Himalayan glaciers to rapidly
retreat (10 to 15 meters or 33 feet and environmental problems
for people in western China,
per year), threatening water
shortages for hundreds of millions Nepal, and northern India.
of people who rely on glacierdependent rivers in China, India,
and Nepal.
Himalayan Glaciers
(continued)
These glaciers feed into 7 of
Asia’s greatest rivers—the
Ganges, Indus, Salween, Mekong,
Brahmaputra, Yangtze, and
Yellow—ensuring a year-round
water supply to hundreds of
millions of people. Glacier water
flows dwindle and energy
potential of hydroelectric power
decreases output for industry, as
well as agriculture, resulting in
dramatically lower crop yields.
Ice Core Drilling (to extract, measure, and
study long cylinders filled with ice, formed
year by year over many centuries)
Left: Scientist Lonnie Thompson and his team;
Above: Ice core drilling in the Himalayas (Nepal)
Ice core drilling has
produced dramatic
evidence of abrupt climate
change. Researchers first
became intrigued when
they discovered striking
evidence of large, abrupt,
and widespread changes
preserved in paleoclimatic
archives—the history of
Earth’s climate recorded in
tree rings, ice cores, and
sediments. For example,
tree rings indicate the
frequency of droughts,
sediments the number and
type of organisms present,
Below: Five-step process, drilling for
ice cores in Greenland, 2005
and gas bubbles trapped in ice cores
reveal information for scientists to
study past atmospheric conditions.
A polar bear walks across rocky ground near Wager Bay,
Canada. Perhaps the Arctic’s most charismatic megafauna,
polar bears face serious threats from global warming. The
bears depend on sea ice as a platform from which they can
hunt seals, their main prey. As more sea ice melts and polar
bears are left with rocky ground like that shown in the
picture, hunting for food becomes increasingly difficult for
these large mammals.
Over the last year or two, biologists acknowledged
that, because sea ice was critical to the life cycle of the
polar bear and to the survival of the polar bear as a
species, the ongoing and projected loss of sea ice in the
Arctic poses a significant threat of extinction to the
polar bear.
Polar Bears
and Arctic
Warming
(continued)
In the Arctic, evidence from satellite data, submarine
data, and oceanic field observations reveal the
diminished areal extent, shorter seasonal duration, and
extensive thinning of sea ice. Summer sea ice cover in
the Arctic has already been reduced in areal extent by
10-20 percent over the last 30 years.
The Arctic region is especially sensitive to global
warming because of cloud cover and ice reflectivity.
Records show that average annual temperatures are
3.5 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer in Alaska and
Siberia. Winters and temperatures in the western
Canadian Arctic and Siberia, meanwhile, are 7
degrees warmer.
Many species are seriously threatened by climate change and some
are becoming extinct because of it and also as the result of human
encroachment into the places where they once thrived. For
example, the destruction of the Amazon rain forest drives many
species to extinction and simultaneously adds more CO2 to the
atmosphere.
Golden Toad
Greater Mouse Lemur
Grey-Headed Albatross
RedBreasted
Goose
Leopard Seal
WhiteFronted
Goose
Due in significant part to global climate change,
we are facing what biologists are beginning to
describe as a “mass extinction crisis”
Macaroni Penguin
Bowhead Whale
Ring
Tail
Lemur
Antarctic Fur Seal
Giant Glass Frog
Wattled Crane
CORAL REEFS
Coral reefs, which are as important to
ocean species as rainforests are to
land species, are being killed in large
numbers by global warming.
Contributing factors are: pollution
from nearby shores, destructive
dynamite fishing, and more acidic
ocean waters. However, the most
deadly cause of the recent, rapid, and
unprecedented deterioration of coral
reefs is higher ocean temperatures
due to global warming.
“There has long been a belief
that the sea was inviolate and
beyond man’s ability to change
and despoil. But this belief,
unfortunately, has proved to be
naïve.” ---Rachael Carson
“Pollution, overfishing,
and overuse have put
many of our unique reefs
at risk. Disappearance
would destroy the habitat
of countless species and
unravel the web of marine
life that has the potential
for new medicines and for
unlocking new mysteries.
The effect on our coastal
communities would be
devastating.”
--President Bill Clinton
Brightly colored mounds
of coral grow in the
warm ocean waters.
They add seasonal layers
which appear as bands in
their hard calciumcarbonate shells. Corals
respond to small changes
in water clarity,
temperature, and rainfall
in mere months, making
them a uniquely sensitive
climate record.
CORAL (continued)
From just a small core in the coral scientists can put
together a very detailed picture of climate in the
tropics. This is significant because much of the
Earth’s weather is controlled by conditions in the
tropics. Bands in the coral’s shell change in
thickness according to changes in temperature,
water clarity, and nutrient availability.
CORAL REEFS (continued)
One of the most significant
clues to climate in coral comes
from the chemistry of the
bands. The chemicals in each
layer reflect conditions in the
oceans when the layer formed.
The ratio of heavy and light
oxygen in coral growth bands
provides a record of current and
past weather. Scientists can
determine how alterations in
climate are then affected by
coral skeletons due to ocean
salinity, temperature, rainfall, or
a combination of these.
CORAL BLEACHING
--is the process that turns
healthy, multicolored coral
reefs into white or gray
skeletons; it occurs when
tiny organisms living in the
transparent membrane
covering the skeleton are
stressed by heat and other
factors and evacuate; after
they escape the colorless
calcium carbonate skeleton
is revealed; the bleached
appearance is the prelude to
the death of the coral
March of the Emperor Penguins
Scientists studying Emperor penguins
at the colony featured in the recent
film “March of the Penguins” found
that their numbers have dropped by
70% since the 1960s and the most
likely reason is global climate change.
Warmer temperatures and stronger
winds produce thinner sea ice, the
frozen ocean water on which
penguins nest. Weakened ice breaks
apart and drifts out to sea , taking the
penguins eggs and chicks with it.
Recent NASA (National
Aeronautics and Space
Administration) studies
using satellite mapping
technology found that
Antarctica is losing land
ice at a rate of 31 billion
tons of water per year.
HURRICANES
A growing number of scientific studies confirm that
warmer water in the top layer of the ocean drives
convection energy and fuels more powerful hurricanes.
As water temperature goes up, wind velocity and storm
moisture condensation go up. The United States
experienced record-breaking seasons in 2004 and 2005.
LEFT:
IVAN, 2004
RIGHT:
KATRINA,
2005
HURRICANES (continued)
An important MIT study in 2005 confirmed that
major storms in both the Atlantic and the Pacific
since the 1970s have increased in duration and
intensity by about fifty percent,
The fundamental relationship between our civilization
and the ecological system of the Earth has been utterly
and radically transformed due, in part, to the stresses of
a global population explosion
It took more than 10,000 generations for the
human population to reach 2 billion. Then it
began to rocket upward from 2 billion to 9 billion
in the course of a single lifetime: ours.
Most of the increase in
population is occurring
in developing nations,
exactly where the bulk
of the world’s poverty is
concentrated; and the
majority of this increase
is in cities.
This rapid population rise drives demand for food, water,
and energy—and for all our natural resources. It puts
enormous pressure on vulnerable areas like forests—
particularly the rain forests of the tropics.
Left: Logging road leading out of a
Brazilian national forest, 2004
Above: Stumps and slash after
clearcutting in Washington, 1999
Irrigation has long worked
wonders for humankind; but
we now have the power to
divert giant rivers according to
our design instead of nature’s
and this has caused major
problems
The former Soviet Union diverted water from
two mighty rivers in central Asia that fed the
Aral Sea (the Amu Darya and Syr Darya) to
irrigate cotton fields.
Above: This dry, sandy land
used to be part of the Aral Sea
An enormous fishing fleet marooned in the
sand, with no water in sight. The entire
Aral Sea is now essentially gone.
The United States is responsible for the contribution of
more greenhouse gas pollution (30.3%) than South
America (3.8%), Africa (2.5%), the Middle East (2.6%),
Australia (1.1%), Japan (3.7%), and Southern Asia
(12.2%)—all put together.
“HOORAY, HOORAY for the
USA--WE’RE #1”*
*in percentage output of worldwide carbon emissions
Carbon Emissions Per Person, Per Country,
Per Year: a Graphic Comparison
We can’t just relax and
ignore the problem of
global climate
change…
And we certainly
can’t afford to stick
our heads in the
sand…
REMEMBER: Denial is not
just a river in Egypt…
Sources/References:
Gore, Al, An Inconvenient Truth: (The
Planetary Emergency of Global Warming
(RODALE, 2006).
AIT in the Classroom,
www.climatecrisis.net
“An Inconvenient Truth: Global
Warning”, Paramount Classics/Pictures,
2006).
Hot Planet – Cold Comfort, Scientific
American Frontiers, Alan Alda (2004),
@pbs.org
“Greenhouse Gases, Climate Change, and
Energy”, U.S. Government, Energy
Information Administration,
@www.eia.doe.gov/neic/brochure/greenh
ouse.
Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, Univ.
of Alaska, Fairbanks, by Dr. Robert
W. Correll, Chair (March 3, 2004).
Nicholson, N.,“Chemistry, Ecology &
Society” (Miami University of Ohio,
2007).
Climate Close-up: Coral Reefs, Earth
Observatory, Paleoclimatology,
@eobglossary.gsfc.nasa.gov
The National Academies of Science,
“Evidence and Triggers of Abrupt
Climate Change” http://dels.nas.edu
“Discovery News”, Human-Caused
Warming, 2006 Warmest on Record
(2007)
Henter, Heather, “It’s the End of the
World as We Know It”, Univ.
California San Diego,
http://alumni.ucsd.edu/magazine
National Geographic News, “Climate
Change: A Warming World” (2004)
http://news.nationalgeographic.com
“Climate Scientists Spotlight Arctic
Warming, Plight of Polar Bears” in
SCIENCE DAILY (6/19/06).
“Snows of Kilimanjaro Disappearing
with Glacial Ice” in PHYSORG
http://www.physorg.com/news
Climate Change” in Science Magazine,
(12/3/04) http://www.sciencemag.org
“Global Warming: Signs and Sources:
Permafrost Thawing, Methane, Nitrous
Oxide, and the Carbon Cycle”-DISCOVERY Channel, located @
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence
“Climate Change and Thermal
Sensitivity of Commercial Marine
Species: The Winners and Losers” @
http://www.geog.mcgill.ca (climate
change), Project Number A515.
The Effects of Global Warming,
Thinning Ice, Hotter Times, Wild
Weather, Nature’s Pain, and Rising Sea
Patz, Jonathan A., “Global Climate
Levels, TIME.com (2001)
Change and Ozone Depletion” @
“Himalayan Glaciers Threaten Water http://www.ilo.org/encyclopedia
Crisis” in IRAN DAILY, 3/15/05.
Black, Richard, “An Engaging
Oreskes, Naomi, “Beyond the Ivory
Dissection of Disaster” in BBC NEWS
Tower: The Scientific Concensus on
(9/15/06) http://news.bbc.co.uk