Global Warming

A lot of people seem to think that global warming is something that is going to happen in a few hundred years, when they're dead anyway. But that assumption is totally wrong. It's happening already. And it will continue to happen until we do something about it. The time for action is now!

There is strong evidence that global warming has already begun to happen. This doesn't mean that the future is hopeless, it just means that we have to work extra hard and quickly to stop it now. Here are some reports from several distinguished scientists on possible global-warming related occurrences...

• A workshop on ENSO and Climate Change in 1991, featuring scientists from 10 countries concluded that there is a strong possibility that global warming may increase the effects and strength of the weather anomaly known as El Niño. As I am sure you've witnessed already this year, El Niño causes mass flooding and lengthy droughts, leaving thousands homeless, ruining crops, and killing marine mammals and fish. The 1998 El Niño, which we're currently experiencing is said to be the worst this century.
  
  
  

  "The first two months of 1998 were the warmest and wettest on record for the lower 48 U.S. states, based on 104 years of weather data, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday [March 9]. 'These record-breaking statistics are generally consistent with both a strong El Nino and climate model projections of a continuing trend toward a warmer and wetter world as greenhouse gases continue to increase,' said Tom Karl, senior scientist at the NOAA's Climate Prediction Center."
  (From InfoBeat News)
  

  
  
  
• Warming in the southern ocean could cause a loss of the cooling influence which drives ocean circulation, causing a warmer deep ocean (and possibly the extinction of some deep water species), lower salinity, and reduced numbers of algae and microorganisms which fish and marine mammals feed on.
  
  
• "Extensive" coral bleaching* in Thailand in 1991 is thought to be due to global warming, since there had been no natural occurrences such as El Niño which would explain an average temperature change of 2ºC (3.6ºF). Also, a 6ºC rise in temperature in French Polynesia was experienced the same year, causing up to 85% of corals on reefs to become bleached*. Sea warming over the next 50 years could cause the extinction of several coral species, as well.
  
  
• Floods experienced in China in 1991 are also attributed to global warming. The flood killed over 1,300 people, caused 10 million to become homeless, and submerged over 20% of their croplands, causing an estimated $800 million in damage. Also, keep in mind that China has the world's largest population, having to feed 20% of the world's population on only 7% of its available land, so a loss of 20% of its crops is a very big deal!
  
  
• There is definate evidence that animals in the US are migrating farther and farther north every year. Plants have also begun to move, as well. This is most likely due to temperatures which are too warm for them to survive in their current range.
  
  
• Even the medical community agrees that global warming is harmful to human health, due to heat exposure and the spread of tropical diseases such as malaria. Professor Andrew Haines, professor of Primary Health Care at University Colege and Middlesex School of Medicine in England said that "the changes expected in the world's climate will worsen health in many ways".
  
  
• The Topex/Poseidon satellite has observed an annual 3mm gain in sea level over two years of its orbit. Although this time period is not long enough to draw definate long term conclusions, it is still highly unusual and cannot be explained by anything else. And in 1990, the IPCC reported that sea level rise over the last century is highly likely, and is estimated at 1-2mm per year.
  
  
• In 1990, the Larsen A ice shelf in Antarctica broke away from the mainland. The shelf, about as large as Maryland, has begun to slowly migrate north, where it will eventually melt and contribute to rising sea levels. Now, the Larsen B ice shelf has begun to grow grass, an occurrence definately not normal in Antarctica. This shelf is much larger than Larsen A, and would make a large impact on the worldwide sea level if it melted.
  
  
• Newspapers recently reported that 1997 was the hottest year on record yet. The 10 hottest years of the century have all occurred within the past decade. This is more evidence of the sharp rise in global temperature which has been happening since the mid-1970s.
  

For more information on global warming and what you can do to stop it, please go to:







Other sources of climate science inlcude:

**The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at http://www.noaa.gov under "climate change" and then "What We and Know and What We Don't Know and Why."

**The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -
established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to assess the available scientific, technical, and socio- economic information in the field of climate change.
[http://www.ipcc.ch/cc95/wg1.htm.

**The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) - working with research institutions to increase the skill of predictions of seasonal-to-interannual climate fluctuations and long-term climate change.
[http://www.usgcrp.gov]

**The Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research - the Centre provides up-to-date assessments of both natural and human-induced climate change [http://www.meto.gov.uk/sec5/sec5pg1.html]

** The Global Hydrology and Climate Center - a joint venture between government and academia to study the global water cycle and its effect on climate.
[http://wwwghcc.msfc.nasa.gov]

**The MacKenzie Basin Impact Study - a six-year collaborative research project sponsored by Environment Canada to investigate a northern high-latitude region sensitive to climate change.
[http://www.tor.ec.gc.ca/earg/mbis/mackenzie.htm]

**The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center - the primary global-change data and information analysis center of the U.S. Department of Energy
[http://cdiac.ESD.ORNL.GOV/about/intro.html]



Take Action
Call or write to your senator today and encourage him/her to vote for the Clean Car Resolution to raise CAFE standards on cars, trucks, vans, and SUVs. For more information and a sample letter, please check out the Sierra Club's Action Center.


Antarctic iceshelf threatened with collapse due to abnormally hot temperatures this year

More evidence that this year's El Niño is related to global warming (from the NOAA)

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Facts for this report were obtained from Greenpeace

Sierra Student Coalition-San Diego

San Ignacio Lagoon Recycle Human Rights Endangered Species