{"article":{"id":172678,"heading":"Doomsday Global Warming: Fact-Sheet \/ What To Do?","author":"Myron (Mike) Stagman, PhD","created":"2006-08-05 06:21:03","modified":"2006-08-05 14:05:46","last_modified":"Sat, 05 Aug 2006 21:05:46","article":"

Myron (Mike) Stagman, PhD
\r\nConcerned Citizens Information Network
\r\nwww.ccin.info<\/span> \r\n[environmental website: information on Drastic Climate Change, Genetic\r\nEngineering, and the Destruction of Nature which Climate Change and\r\nGenetic Engineering are promising to accomplish]
\r\nwww.MyronStagman.com
\r\n
\r\n
\r\nDoomsday Global\r\nWarming: Fact-Sheet\/What To Do?<\/span><\/span>\r\n                     \r\n
\r\n
\r\n              \r\n
\r\n                                      \r\nI.<\/span>
\r\n <\/span>Global Warming\r\n(Drastic Climate Change): Fact-Sheet<\/span>
\r\n
\r\n<\/strong>\r\n<\/p>

\r\n<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
For\r\nthe past 30 years in particular, due to heavy air\r\npollution from the burning of fossil fuels <\/strong>(oil.\r\ngas, coal<\/strong>),\r\n global temperatures have risen dramatically -- with equally\r\ndamaging\r\neffects.  A continuation of the pattern will lead -- and\r\nswiftly -- to\r\ndisastrous climate changes obvious to the most unobservant.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
Heat-trapping\r\ngases (\"greenhouse\" gases) are the poisonous causes, produced\r\nespecially by carbon dioxide emissions poured out from airplanes,\r\nautomobile tailpipes,  power plants, industrial smokestacks.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
Global Warming has already<\/span>\r\n<\/strong>brought\r\nabout the breaking up of arctic ice shelves and the retreat of mountain\r\nglaciers.  It has brought about changes in winds and\r\ncurrents in both\r\nthe Atlantic and Pacific oceans.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
These\r\nin turn cause extreme weather events with countless human and wildlife\r\nvictims -- storms, floods, droughts, soaring temperatures in some\r\nplaces and plunging temperatures in others.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
\r\n
[\"Kilmanjaro's\r\n'Perpetual Snows' Melt Away\" <\/strong>, International Herald\r\nTribune,  <\/em>20\r\nFebruary 2001. \"The ice cap atop Mount Kilmanjaro, which for thousands\r\nof years has floated like a cool beacon over the shimmering equatorial\r\nplain of Tanzania, is retreating at such a pace that it will disappear\r\nin less than 15 years, according to studies.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
[\"The\r\nvanishing of the seemingly perpetual snows of Kilmanjaro that inspired\r\nErnest Hemingway, echoed by similar trends on ice-capped peaks from\r\nPeru to Tibet, is one of the clearest signs that a global warming in\r\nthe last 50 years appears to have exceeded climate shifts and is at\r\nleast partly caused by gases released by human activities, a variety of\r\nscientists say.\"]<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
Sahara\r\ndesert conditions are insidiously invading parts of southern Europe<\/span>,\r\nwhile Siberia has had temperatures dipping below minus 50 degrees\r\ncentigrade (minus 58 Fahrenheit).<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
Britain\r\nand parts of northern Europe have seen widespread flooding<\/span>. \r\nIn other parts of the world, shorelines have been destroyed.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
\r\n
Environmental\r\nrefugees<\/span>,\r\npeople who lost their livelihoods and homes due to drastic climate\r\nchange,  clamour to enter northern countries, such as the UK.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
[The\r\ninhabitants of the south Pacific Island of Kiribati, the Marshall\r\nIslands, Cook Islands, and low-lying islands of Papua New Guinea \"are\r\nall preparing to evacuate their lands forever as rising sea levels\r\nthreaten their homes now.  For them, as for the families of\r\nthe many\r\nthousands of people across Europe who lost their lives in last year's\r\nheatwave, climate change is not about the day after tomorrow, it is\r\nabout today\". 
\r\n[<\/span>The\r\nEcologist<\/em>, July\/August 2004] <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
Animals\r\nand birds have lost their natural habitats<\/span>, particularly\r\nfrom droughts and a loss of wetlands and estuaries.  Animal\r\nand plant species have become extinct.<\/strong><\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
[\"North\r\nSea birds dying as waters heat up: Scientists warn that warmer\r\nconditions could have a catastrophic effect on east coast\r\necosystem\".  <\/strong>The Observer, <\/em>20\r\nJune 2004.  \"Climate change is ridding the North Sea of its\r\nprecious\r\nstocks of plankton, the microscopic organisms on which all life in the\r\nsea depends.  As the very building blocks of the food chain\r\ndisappear,\r\nfish and the birds that feed on them, such as the puffin and guillemot,\r\nare starving to death in what has been their natural home for thousands\r\nof years.\"]<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
Malarial\r\nmosquitoes<\/span> have extended their range, and events like this\r\ncause side-effects such as increases in the use of toxic pesticides.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
Money<\/strong>: \r\nA report in early June 2004 by the Association of British\r\nInsurers\r\ndeals with financial losses in their industry, past and projected, from\r\nclimate change.  \"The\r\nfinancial losses caused by natural catastrophes have increased\r\nseven-fold within the last 40 years.<\/span>\"
\r\n
\r\nLosses\r\nwill continue to escalate<\/span>. \r\n\"A major coastal flood affecting London costing £40 billion\r\nin\r\ninsurance claims alone\" will occur before 2050. \"The ABI report is\r\ndistressing reading for anyone tempted to see global warming as meaning\r\nlonger summers.  It will also mean heat stress, skin cancer,\r\nfood\r\npoisoning, exotic diseases such as malaria, and\r\ndrought.\"  
\r\n(Guardian<\/em> editorial, 11 June 2004)  <\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n

\r\n\"Collateral damage<\/span>\"\r\n--  Fossil fuels cause other damage occasioned by giant\r\nbusinesses and the governments they influence -- wars<\/span>\r\n(e.g. in Afghanistan and Iraq),  oil spills<\/span>\r\n (e.g. the Exxon Valdez catastrophe in Alaska;  the\r\n200,000 gallons\r\ndumped near the pristine Galapagos islands off of Chile), European\r\nspills such as the fairly recent Spanish disaster;  Cancer<\/span><\/span>,\r\nderived in significant part from air pollution.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
On\r\nthe latter point, it is worth quoting the U.S. National Institutes of\r\nHealth publication,  Cancer<\/em> -- Rates\r\nand Risks <\/em>(4th edition):   \"Air\r\nPollution<\/span>. \r\nPollutants in the urban air have long been suspect as causes of lung\r\ncancer. . . . Of special concern are products from the combustion of\r\nfossil fuels found principally in motor vehicle exhausts (especially\r\ndiesel engines), residential and commercial space heating, oil and\r\ncoal-fired power plants, and industrial emissions.\"<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
The\r\noverall economic losses stretch into the trillions of dollars --\r\nalready.  <\/em>According to the New\r\nScientist  (1 May 2004), <\/em> Australia\r\nalone, due to extraordinary drought conditions in recent years, has\r\nexperienced US$5 billion in lost production.   <\/div>\r\n
[Estimates\r\nof economic losses do not include financial losses from the\r\nIraq War,\r\nfought primarily over oil, that has cost to this date  (spring\r\n2004)\r\nabout 100 billion dollars, with another half-trillion dollars estimated\r\nto go for the rebuilding of the country.  Fossil\r\nfuels must be replaced.]<\/strong><\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
Global\r\nWarming threatens <\/strong><\/div>\r\n
 \r\n-- <\/strong>to get\r\nmuch, much worse<\/span>. <\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
 \r\n-- to drive one million species of animals and plants to\r\nextinction within a few decades<\/em><\/strong>.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
  \"<\/span>A\r\nquarter of known land animals and plants, more than a million species,\r\nwill eventually die out because of the global warming that will take\r\nplace over the next 50 years<\/span>, the most important\r\nstudy of its kind has concluded.<\/div>\r\n
  \r\n\"International scientists from eight countries have warned that, based\r\neven on the most conservative estimates, rising temperatures will\r\ntrigger a global mass extinction of unprecedented\r\nproportions.\" 
\r\n[The Independent, 8 January 2004, \"<\/em>Revealed:\r\nhow global warming will cause extinction of a million species\", by\r\nSteve Connor, Science Editor]<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
  \r\n[Example.   Europe -- \"Many birds are threatened by\r\nclimate change due\r\nto the loss of climatically suitable habitats.  The red kite\r\ncould lose\r\nup to 86 per cent of its range as a result of warmer\r\ntemperatures -- an\r\nadditional pressure following centuries of persecution.\" (Independent)]<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
  \r\n[Example.  South Africa -- \"The Cape Floristic Region is one\r\nof the six\r\nrichest plant regions in the world.  The toffee-apple\r\nconebrush is\r\nfound in just a few localities and it is predicted that  all\r\nof them\r\nwill become climatically unsuitable by 2050 --   a\r\nmajor dieback of the\r\nplant has already occurred following extensive droughts. (Independent<\/em>)] <\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
Global\r\nWarming threatens<\/strong><\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
 \r\n--  to create 20 million environmental refugees\r\nper year<\/strong>.  By 2050, the total may reach 150\r\nmillion displaced persons.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
 \r\n--  According to a secret U.S. Pentagon report<\/strong>,\r\nsuppressed for 4 months by President Bush (prompted by the Giant Oil\r\nLobby), the passage of a mere 20 years may see the deaths of millions\r\nof people from wars and natural disasters, mega-droughts, famine, a\r\nrise in sea levels inundating large areas,  water and energy\r\nshortages,\r\nviolent storms, and a multitude of internal conflicts caused by these\r\nevents.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
Within 15\r\nyears time, it is predicted, Europe will become much colder. \r\nBritain\r\nwill likely fare worse than other European\r\ncountries. 
\r\n[The Guardian, <\/em>22\r\nApril 2004.  \"Global warming floods threaten 4m in\r\nUK\".  During the\r\nnext 50 years, \"up to 4 million Britons [are] facing the prospect of\r\ntheir homes being inundated, according to a report to be published\r\ntoday by the government.\"]<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
The\r\nPentagon report concluded that Climate Change \"should be elevated\r\nbeyond a scientific debate to a U.S. national security\r\nconcern.\"   (See\r\nThe Observer,  <\/em>22 February 2004.)<\/div>\r\n
                    <\/strong><\/div>\r\n
-\r\n- - - - - - - - -  
\r\n
\r\n                                  II.<\/span><\/span> <\/span>              \r\n
\r\n
\r\n <\/span>What Can We Do About Global\r\nWarming<\/u>?<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
[Repeat:  It\r\nthreatens to drive one million species of animals and plants\r\nto extinction within a few decades;<\/div>\r\n
              to\r\ncreate 20 million environmental refugees per year]<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
Obviously,\r\nwe must drastically reduce greenhouse, carbon gas\r\nemissions.  We can achieve this imperative goal via
\r\n
\r\n(a) energy\r\nconservation<\/span>\r\nin transport, industry, at home,  and (most importantly,\r\nbecause\r\nconservation is stopgap at best -- and thinking of China and India,\r\nit's not even that):
\r\n
\r\nb) furthering\r\ngreen (clean and renewable) energy technologies<\/span> while limiting and phasing out\r\npolluting energy sources<\/span>.  
\r\n
\r\nTherefore,<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
I. \r\nPolluters\r\nand Polluting Agents to Target<\/span>:<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
 \r\na.  Fossil-Fuel Lobbies --  oil & gas, coal,\r\nautomobile and aviation industries.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
  b. \r\nPut an end to the £50 billion ($75 billion) a year spent by\r\nthe rich\r\ncountries to subsidize fossil fuel industries. \r\nDivert money from the\r\nradioactivity-polluting, inefficient nuclear power\r\nindustry.  <\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
 \r\nc.  Make the Polluters pay <\/strong>for\r\nthe damage they do -- via legislation, compensation claims in courts of\r\nlaw.  Let taxation become an awfully heavy burden for\r\nthe fossil fuel,\r\nautomobile and aviation industries.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
  d.\r\nThe United States, with 4% of the world's population, accounts for 25%\r\nof the world's greenhouse-gas pollution.  Americans\r\nindulge in\r\nfuel-inefficient vehicles like SUVs and pickup\r\ntrucks.  <\/div>\r\n
The\r\nBush Government, moreover, renounced the Kyoto Accord on cutting global\r\ncarbon emissions after the Clinton Administration had signed the\r\ninternational treaty.<\/div>\r\n
    \r\nThe Bush (Harken Energy oil corporation)--Cheney (Halliburton Energy\r\noilfields corporation)-Condeleeza Rice (former director at Chevron\r\nOil)-- etc. -- administration is an Oil-Lobby government.<\/strong><\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
  e. \r\nThe rich, developed countries cause 80% of the problem.  (The\r\nUK's share is\r\n3%).       <\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
  f. \r\nCut down on the sale and use of automobiles.  Among other\r\nthings,\r\ncurtail usage by prohibiting car travel to certain areas on certain\r\ndays (as in Athens, Greece). <\/div>\r\n
  <\/div>\r\n

\r\n II.  Positive Measures<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
 \r\na.  Public transport -- <\/strong>promote\r\npublicly-owned, public transport, and subsidised so economical\r\nfares encourage its use.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
\r\n
 \r\nb.  Stop building roads and new airports. \r\nPut the money into public\r\ntransport, into railways, buses, cycleways and walkways.  And\r\nbring\r\nback ship travel at non-luxury prices.
\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
  \r\n<\/div>\r\n
 \r\nc.  Encourage bicycling, walking (and\r\njogging).  Become healthier while the planet becomes so.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
 d.  We\r\nshould become more economical in the use of electricity around the\r\nhouse and in offices, such as turning off lights, TV\r\nsets, computers;\r\nsuch as not using air-conditioning unless you really need it (a\r\ncharacteristically American failing).<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
 \r\ne.  Recyclie plastic (which is an oil-based\r\nmaterial);  phase out plastic containers.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
 \r\nf.   Use biodegradable packaging.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
 \r\ng..   For use against carbon dioxide, there is a\r\nmicro-organism called\r\n'cyanobacteria' (green slime) that can consume carbon\r\ndioxide.  The\r\nmain problem is to apply cyanobacteria to an operational power plant.\r\n(One of the problems with the application process has already been\r\nsolved by an undergradiuate student at Ohio University. The problem\r\ninvolved providing light in a smokestack.)<\/div>\r\n
   \r\nResearch and develop things like this -- but without\r\nallowing patents.<\/strong><\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
 III.  \r\nSave our forests, <\/strong>which act as 'carbon\r\nsinks'.   But absolutely do\r\nnot <\/strong>genetically engineer trees, and eliminate<\/strong>\r\nthose GM trees already misbegotten.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
 <\/strong>IV. \r\nDevelop clean, renewable energy sources:  <\/strong>These\r\ninclude solar energy, geothermal, tidal, biomass, combined heat and\r\npower schemes (CHP),  hydrogen technology, and bio-diesel.
\r\n
\r\n[NOT <\/span>wind\r\npower -- extremely inefficient and destructive of Nature and scenic\r\nbeauty; or, of course, nuclear power, for obvious reasons]
\r\n<\/div>\r\n
  \r\n
\r\n<\/div>\r\n
Flower\r\nPower <\/strong><\/em>-- (New Scientist, <\/em>1\r\nMay 2004, by Philip Hunter)  The\r\nmystery of how plants derive energy from sunlight by splitting water\r\nmolecules is solved at last.  Now the challenge is to do the\r\nsame in\r\nthe lab.  The reward is . . . unlimited energy.<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
\"\r\nPhotosynthesis is the most successful solar converting mechanism on\r\nEarth.  And when Nature has invented such a successful system,\r\nit would\r\nbe foolish to ignore it as a potential source of renewable energy, says\r\nStenbjorn Styring, professor of biochemistry at Lund University in\r\nSweden.  Artifical photosynthesis would make it possible to\r\nharness\r\nsunlight to produce limitless quantities of hydrogen or other\r\nenergy-rich fuels from water, cleanly and cheaply<\/strong>.\"<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
  \r\nLet us use Flower Power as a clue to other clean, cheap and\r\nsplendid energy sources.<\/u><\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
Warning<\/strong>: \r\nNO PATENTS should be permitted on any invention in this\r\nfield.  All inventions belong in the public\r\ndomain.   <\/strong>
\r\n
\r\nPatents,\r\nwhich confer monopoly rights, are customarily used by\r\ncorporations to\r\nstop research and competition, sew up markets, and set artificially\r\nhigh prices.  2\/3 of patented products are\r\nnever produced. 
\r\n
\r\n<\/strong>The\r\nlast thing on earth oil & gas corporations want is clean, cheap\r\nenergy.  One way or another they or their allies will get\r\ntheir hands\r\non patented energy processes, and that's the last we will ever see of\r\nthem.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
NO\r\nPATENTS allowed<\/span>.  If someone makes a valuable\r\ninvention, then pay him\r\nor her or them handsomely<\/span>, and make the invention\r\navailable to all of us.  <\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
NO\r\nPATENTS allowed<\/span>.  Use public-funded\r\nresearch, and encourage private (but not large corporate)\r\nresearch, and allow NO PATENTS.<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
Patents\r\nare the most abused and abusive section of law.  Well over 90%\r\nof\r\nextant patents should be foreclosed.  Patent law should be\r\nredefined\r\nand very strictly limited. (Of course, no patents should\r\never have been allowed on life-forms, an evil of unimaginable\r\nproportions<\/span><\/span>.<\/span>)<\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n
In\r\ncase the point has not been sufficiently stressed, NO\r\nPATENTS ALLOWED <\/strong>in the development of clean,\r\nrenewable energy sources.  <\/div>\r\n
 <\/div>\r\n  Note<\/u>: The technological part\r\nof developing clean, cheap energy sources is rather easy<\/span>. \r\nThe problem is political, <\/strong>overcoming\r\npowerful vested economic interests and their\r\npolitical executors.  <\/strong><\/em>The\r\nproblem is <\/span>political<\/span>\r\n!!
\r\n
\r\n
\r\nBIG QUESTION:  JUST\r\nHOW shall we accomplish the above given <\/span><\/span>the\r\nCorporation-Government-corporate\r\nMass Media axis<\/span>\r\nwhich has insisted that Global Warming and the destruction of Planet\r\nEarth are necessary for Them to satisfy their pathological lust for\r\nMoney and Power?
\r\n
\r\nAnswer:   Grassroots\r\nPublic Information Campaigns to educate & politically activate\r\nthe\r\nGeneral Public, university\/college students in particular.
\r\n
\r\nDon't think the\r\nGeneral Public MUST  KNOW BY NOW about Global Warming and its\r\napolcalyptic dangers -- they don't. <\/span> And those\r\nthat do have little if any idea what to do about it. 
\r\nSo they must become educated on the subject -- with essential<\/span>\r\ninformation (only this is necessary) -- and \r\ninformed\/motivated about What To Do.
\r\n
\r\nThis\r\nwould , by the way,  help create an informed, sparetime\r\nactivist\r\nCitizenry which increasingly takes over the vital political system that\r\nis rightfully and legally theirs.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/em>\r\n\r\n\n","contact":"artemesium@gmail.com","link":"www.ccin.info","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"Tragic Climate Change is well underway and will worsen unto Doomsday if we do not take drastic measures to stop its progress. The development of clean, renewable and CHEAP Green Energy is indispensable. This has never been a difficult technical problem. The Problem is POLITICAL, necessitating a crucial political change -- Polluters' Power overridden by People's Power.","numcomment":3,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2006\/08\/172678.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":172689,"heading":"Where do I start","article":"First Mt Killimjaro is indeed losing its glacial cap. This has been shown repeatedly to be unrelated to temperature. Its losing the cap because of deforestation around the mountain. Less rain forest means less rain or snow at higher elevations. The glacier is abulating, going straight from ice to water vapor like all other glaciers. The problem is there is no replacement. A guy with a PhD should know this.\r\n\r\nBest guess( and I mean guess) is that the oceans are rising 1-2 millimeters per year. Or the land might be sinking at 1-2 millimeters per year. At any rate, the oceans rose and fell hundreds of feet long before there were people burning things. Continents move, mountains are pushed up. They wear down. Even the Sun hass been shown to have variable heating through uptick in radiation. It is a small change but undoubtly has an effect on climate.\r\n\r\nGet rid of patents and you get rid of inventions. Even Universities together with large corporations do research hoping for a large payoff. Letting the governmnet decide what something is worth is a reciepe for disaster.\r\n\r\nI could go on but why.\r\n\r\n","author":"Roger","parent_id":172678,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2006-08-05 13:47:18","modified":"2006-08-05 13:47:18","fileurl":""},{"id":172697,"heading":"Well, Roger, what do you think about Prop. 87?","article":"http:\/\/www.yeson87.org\/page\/content\/aboutus\/\r\n\r\n"The Clean Energy Initiative"\r\n\r\nThe oil companies are spending millions to defeat it.\r\nI suspect its in the too little, too late category, but at least its focusing people's attention on theissue.","author":"Tia","parent_id":172678,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2006-08-05 14:05:46","modified":"2006-08-05 14:05:46","fileurl":""}]}