Global warming: time to reverse it

Presentations like former Vice President Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" and, increasingly, nature itself, seem to pound home a truth: Global warming is beyond doubt, human activity has a great deal to do with it and we need to act quickly to reverse the trend.

Evidence pushes the imagination to the limit. Components of our environment that once were timeless manifestations of the earth's constancy and its imperviousness to human influence are literally melting away and changing before our eyes.

This is how significant and yet common the phenomenon is becoming. In a recent issue of The New York Times, a story that documented the melting of glacier ice in Greenland to the point where segments of land once considered part of the mass of the mainland now are clearly islands, was consigned to the science section.

"We are already in a new era of geography," Arctic explorer Will Steger told the Times. "This phenomenon--of an island all of a sudden appearing out of nowhere and the ice melting around it--is a real common phenomenon now."

Gore's book and video presentations trace the effect on the earth's temperature of the increase of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and their accumulation in the atmosphere. According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency Web site, "A warming trend of about 0.7 to 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit occurred during the 20th century. Warming occurred in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and over the oceans."

Further, the site notes that according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, "There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities."

Apparently the evidence is persuasive enough that leading scientists and evangelical Christian leaders, according to a recent Associated Press dispatch, "have agreed to put aside their differences over the origin of life and work together to fight global warming."

In other words--regardless of how it all began--it's in trouble today. "Whether God created the Earth in a millisecond or whether it evolved over billions of years, the issue we agree on is that it needs to be cared for today," Rich Cizik, vice president of government relations for the National Association of Evangelicals. told AP.

We have yet to see what kind of action is inspired by the new awareness. There are precedents for hope in the realm of environmental repair. Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring was an alarming notice that widespread use of chemicals, especially DDT, was causing the destruction of some of our most prized bird species, including the bald eagle. DDT eventually was banned, and other chemicals were either banned or controlled, and today eagles, once diminished in range to only the most remote and protected areas of the country, now flourish along inland waterways.

Other campaigns that originated at the grass roots--notably the one to ban chlorofluorocarbons that were destroying the ozone layer--successfully halted or reversed serious environmental damage.

We await, of course, government action that will make large strides in progress possible. Until then, however, there are many things that ordinary individuals and citizen groups can do to help curb global warming. You'll find details on these on the Sierra Club Web site at www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming. They include everything from installing low-flow showerheads and planting a tree to buying energy-efficient electronics, recycling and, if possible, purchasing high-mileage cars, including hybrid automobiles that use a mix of gasoline engine and electric engine technology to cut down on the consumption of fossil fuels.

Individuals and groups can press legislators to pass laws imposing more stringent vehicle fuel emission standards. Automobile emissions are one of the most serious causes of greenhouse gas buildup in the environment and also present the single most effective way of controlling the emissions that contribute to global warming. Individuals can certainly make choices about the cars they drive, but this is one area where government could move the process along in significant ways by requiring stricter standards.

We know it is possible because the United States currently lags behind much of the world in automobile emissions standards. We no longer lack the evidence to make the case. What's lacking now is the political will to make the change.

COPYRIGHT 2007 National Catholic Reporter
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