Planetary Ruin

For scientists, global warming is a disaster movie, its opening scenes set at the poles of Earth. The epic already has started. And it’s not fiction.

The scenes are playing, at the start, in slow motion: The relentless grip of the Arctic Ocean that defied man for centuries is melting away. The sea ice reaches only half as far as it did 50 years ago. In the summer of 2006, it shrank to a record low; this summer the ice pulled back even more, by an area nearly the size of Alaska. Where explorer Robert Peary just 102 years ago saw “a great white disk stretching away apparently infinitely” from Ellesmere Island, there is often nothing now but open water. Glaciers race into the sea from the island of Greenland, beginning an inevitable rise in the oceans….

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…The part that I find so unbelievable is the majority of people seem content to argue whether or not the global warming affects are being caused by humans.

 This is a moot question, and not one worthy of your time.

What should be obvious is that human activity, even if not directly responsible, is not helping the situation. And that situation is progressively becoming more and more alarming.

 So, the question should not be “Is it our fault?”, but rather “What can we do to minimize the damage?”

 Make no mistake, the damage will happen, and it is 100% up to us to decide how bad it will be.

If you must argue, argue about that.

The farmer at the centre of the first foot and mouth outbreak in Surrey has spoken of his shock at discovering his cattle were infected with the disease.
 
Farmer Roger PrideRoger Pride, who runs Woolford’s farm with his wife Valerie, said they were victims of circumstances beyond their control.

In a statement read at a news conference by Anthony Gibson from the National Farmers’ Union, Mr Pride described the moment when it was confirmed his animals were infected.

He said: “For a moment we couldn’t believe it. We were completely shocked and devastated.

“It felt as if our whole world was turned upside-down.”

He also said he believed floods may have carried the disease to his farm, because water from an overflowing sewer had spread across his fields.

Earlier, it was confirmed that a second outbreak of foot and mouth had been found on another farm, inside the three kilometre exclusion zone.

The cattle there had already been destroyed because of fears that they had the disease.

The NFU is now in discussions with Defra about shutting all footpaths and rights of way in the area to prevent further contamination.

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Research aimed at disputing the scientific consensus on global warming is part of a huge public misinformation campaign funded by some of the world’s largest carbon polluters, former Vice President Al Gore said Tuesday.

“There has been an organized campaign, financed to the tune of about $10 million a year from some of the largest carbon polluters, to create the impression that there is disagreement in the scientific community,” Gore said at a forum in Singapore. “In actuality, there is very little disagreement.”

Gore likened the campaign to the millions of dollars spent by U.S. tobacco companies years ago on creating the appearance of scientific debate on smoking’s harmful effects.

“This is one of the strongest of scientific consensus views in the history of science,” Gore said. “We live in a world where what used to be called propaganda now has a major role to play in shaping public opinion.”

After the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of the world’s top climate scientists, released a report in February that warned that the cause of global warming is “very likely” man-made, “the deniers offered a bounty of $10,000 for each article disputing the consensus that people could crank out and get published somewhere,” Gore said.

“They’re trying to manipulate opinion and they are taking us for fools,” he said.

He said Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, is one of the major fuel companies involved in attempting to mislead the public about global warming.

Last year, British and American science advocacy groups accused ExxonMobil of funding groups that undermine the scientific consensus on climate change. The company said the scientists’ reports were just attempts to smear Exxon Mobil’s name and confuse the debate.

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The world experienced a series of record-breaking weather events in early 2007, from flooding in Asia to heatwaves in Europe and snowfall in South Africa, the United Nations weather agency said on Tuesday.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said global land surface temperatures in January and April were likely the warmest since records began in 1880, at more than 1 degree Celsius higher than average for those months.

There have also been severe monsoon floods across South Asia, abnormally heavy rains in northern Europe, China, Sudan, Mozambique and Uruguay, extreme heatwaves in southeastern Europe and Russia, and unusual snowfall in South Africa and South America this year, the WMO said.

“The start of the year 2007 was a very active period in terms of extreme weather events,” Omar Baddour of the agency’s World Climate Program told journalists in Geneva.

While most scientists believe extreme weather events will be more frequent as heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions cause global temperatures to rise, Baddour said it was impossible to say with certainty what the second half of 2007 will bring.

“It is very difficult to make projections for the rest of the year,” he said.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a U.N. umbrella group of hundreds of experts, has noted an increasing trend in extreme weather events over the past 50 years and said irregular patterns are likely to intensify.

South Asia’s worst monsoon flooding in recent memory has affected 30 million people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, destroying croplands, livestock and property and raising fears of a health crisis in the densely-populated region.

Heavy rains also doused southern China in June, with nearly 14 million people affected by floods and landslides that killed 120 people, the WMO said.

England and Wales this year had their wettest May and June since records began in 1766, resulting in extensive flooding and more than $6 billion in damage, as well as at least nine deaths. Germany swung from its driest April since country-wide observations started in 1901 to its wettest May on record.

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Dangerous heat will blanket most of the eastern half of the nation today, while drenching storms develop along the rim of the heat from the central Plains to the Great Lakes.

A large dome of high pressure over the Gulf Coast states is pumping hot air into most areas east of the Rockies. The Severe Weather Center lists the widespread heat-related Warnings and Advisories in effect through much of this week.

 Temperatures today will soar into the mid- to upper 90s across the southern Plains, the Ohio Valley and the Southeast. Some centers top the century mark and challenge record highs.

According to the East Regional News story, 90-degree heat will spread through the mid-Atlantic and parts of southern New England. Increased humidity will create dangerous RealFeel® temperatures near or above 100 degrees along the Interstate 95 corridor as far north as Massachusetts.

Residents should use extreme care during this heat wave to avoid suffering from heat-related illnesses.

Be sure to drink lots of water, wear loose and light-colored clothing, avoid strenuous activity and stay in air conditioned buildings. Children and pets should never be left in cars, even for a few minutes. The elderly, small children and chronically ill are especially vulnerable to the heat.

While the heat in the Northeast will ease slightly later in the week, there will be little or no relief from the sizzling temperatures in other regions.

The Southwest Regional News story reports the heat across the southern Plains during the upcoming days will be noteworthy. Today, the forecast high of 95 degrees in San Antonio, Tex., will be the first 95-degree day this year. By this date last year, the city had recorded more than 65 days of 95 degrees or higher.

Conditions could be brutal for the final major of the 2007 men’s professional golf season. The 89th PGA Championship begins Thursday at the Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. High temperatures near or above 100 degrees will bake the fairways and greens, while excessive humidity will produce unbearable conditions for the players and fans alike.

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