Get real about global warming
Global warming is intensifying more rapidly than can be explained by natural climatic changes alone.
Most scientists attribute this additional temperature surge to human activities, especially the accelerating release of carbon dioxide, other gases and additional pollutants into the atmosphere. They believe these substances act as a gigantic greenhouse, trapping additional heat near the earth’s surface.
Since 1950, the world’s population has almost tripled with fewer than 5 percent for the total in the United States. Many populous nations, including China and India, are modernizing, requiring more nonrenewable resources and increasing pollution and solid wastes.
Yet controversy keeps boiling over the reality of global warming and the contribution of human activities. Most vocal climate change “deniers” are motivated by pressure from groups that benefit from current environmental practices. Other deniers concede that global environmental changes are occurring but doubt the human factor. Some attribute melting icepacks and irregular weather patterns to short-term climatic fluctuations or natural global cycles.
However, mounting research evidence affirms that human activities do affect climate. Most natural scientists and many well-informed citizens worldwide now share this conviction. The February issue of National Geographic and recent EPA Internet reports summarize the factual basis for global warming. Without effective countermeasures, extensive flooding and displacement of residents are projected for Florida and other coastal regions.
Climate deniers tend to obscure the fact that many conditions believed to hasten global warming need to be remedied, whether or not temperatures rise. The adverse social, economic, physical and biological impacts of accelerating personal, industrial and agricultural activities are too severe to ignore. At stake are air quality, our vital municipal and groundwater supplies, and the foods we eat.
The well-documented decline of ocean fisheries and widespread extinction of other land and sea species are serious, sometimes irreversible trends. Rapid and often reckless exploitation of the world’s vast forests, prairies and tundra regions must be contained. Our expanding deserts, persistent areas of poverty and the threat of pandemic diseases can be mitigated.
In the United States during the 1960s, the declining quality of the environment emerged as a vital concern of both major political parties. Congress, as well as individual states and several other industrial nations, enacted laws and policies to protect the environment. These included measures to protect air, water and soil quality, ocean fisheries, endangered species and remaining wildernesses.
The Environmental Protection Agency and other federal and state agencies were created to monitor trends and enforce these measures. Their efforts were and still are opposed by some industries. But today we have cleaner air and fewer pollution-related illnesses. We are healthier and live longer. Many rivers and lakes been restored. Mining, farming and forestry are more sustainable. But in parts of eastern Europe, Asia and elsewhere, conditions continued to deteriorate.
A coordinated world effort to improve these conditions is underway, but more should be done. Effective action can ensure an acceptable quality of life for future generations.
Lambert N. “Bert” Wenner of Salem is a retired federal employee. He can be reached at (503) 391-4871.
Most scientists attribute this additional temperature surge to human activities, especially the accelerating release of carbon dioxide, other gases and additional pollutants into the atmosphere. They believe these substances act as a gigantic greenhouse, trapping additional heat near the earth’s surface.
Since 1950, the world’s population has almost tripled with fewer than 5 percent for the total in the United States. Many populous nations, including China and India, are modernizing, requiring more nonrenewable resources and increasing pollution and solid wastes.
Yet controversy keeps boiling over the reality of global warming and the contribution of human activities. Most vocal climate change “deniers” are motivated by pressure from groups that benefit from current environmental practices. Other deniers concede that global environmental changes are occurring but doubt the human factor. Some attribute melting icepacks and irregular weather patterns to short-term climatic fluctuations or natural global cycles.
However, mounting research evidence affirms that human activities do affect climate. Most natural scientists and many well-informed citizens worldwide now share this conviction. The February issue of National Geographic and recent EPA Internet reports summarize the factual basis for global warming. Without effective countermeasures, extensive flooding and displacement of residents are projected for Florida and other coastal regions.
Climate deniers tend to obscure the fact that many conditions believed to hasten global warming need to be remedied, whether or not temperatures rise. The adverse social, economic, physical and biological impacts of accelerating personal, industrial and agricultural activities are too severe to ignore. At stake are air quality, our vital municipal and groundwater supplies, and the foods we eat.
The well-documented decline of ocean fisheries and widespread extinction of other land and sea species are serious, sometimes irreversible trends. Rapid and often reckless exploitation of the world’s vast forests, prairies and tundra regions must be contained. Our expanding deserts, persistent areas of poverty and the threat of pandemic diseases can be mitigated.
In the United States during the 1960s, the declining quality of the environment emerged as a vital concern of both major political parties. Congress, as well as individual states and several other industrial nations, enacted laws and policies to protect the environment. These included measures to protect air, water and soil quality, ocean fisheries, endangered species and remaining wildernesses.
The Environmental Protection Agency and other federal and state agencies were created to monitor trends and enforce these measures. Their efforts were and still are opposed by some industries. But today we have cleaner air and fewer pollution-related illnesses. We are healthier and live longer. Many rivers and lakes been restored. Mining, farming and forestry are more sustainable. But in parts of eastern Europe, Asia and elsewhere, conditions continued to deteriorate.
A coordinated world effort to improve these conditions is underway, but more should be done. Effective action can ensure an acceptable quality of life for future generations.
Lambert N. “Bert” Wenner of Salem is a retired federal employee. He can be reached at (503) 391-4871.
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