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energy tip
Unplug appliances, especially those with indicator lights or DC adaptors, when not in use. |
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The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, employing 2500 world-renowned scientists in a six-year effort, has been releasing its working group findings in a series of reports this year. The first report, released in Paris in February, said there is now no doubt that human activity is causing the Earth’s climate to change at a rate that is unprecedented in natural history. The second report was released in April in Brussels and said that heat waves, crop failure, and weather events could reduce world population by one-third this century. The third report, due out in May, is expected to affirm that even if severe restrictions were placed on greenhouse gas emissions now, there is a possibility it would do no good; it is simply too late.
In 1988, leading atmospheric scientists predicted that we had less than a decade to prevent sending our planet into extreme weather and possibly risking mass extinctions of life on Earth. While nations around the world reacted quickly, formed treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol, and passed laws to restrict greenhouse emissions, the United States, Australia, Saudi Arabia and others ignored their warnings. The result is now written in rising sea levels, more intense hurricanes, and summer heat waves that kill thousands, even in Europe.
Still, there may be opportunities to limit the damage from global warming and possibly save us from a worse fate than is otherwise in store. Removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and not adding further to the global burden is only the start of the process. We will need to depend more in the future on solar energy in all its forms and less on buried hydrocarbons like oil, gas and coal. We need to plant trees and other fast-growing crops that serve as atmospheric scrub brushes. |
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