The findings issued by a panel of 150 scientists from 99 nations at a U.N. conference on global warming in Shanghai last week should strike fear into the heart of every human on the planet. The scientists unanimously predicted that the average temperature of the Earth could rise by as much as 10.4 degrees over the next century, which is 1.4 more degrees than the earth’s temperature has increased since the last ice age. Such drastic temperature increases, they said, could cause brutal drought and intense flooding that could submerge densely populated coastal areas in places such as China and Egypt. The colossal human cost of developed nations’ polluting ways is no longer a far-off possibility. Such disasters are inevitable if the industrialized nations of the world do not take the lead in drastically curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
In light of the evidence, it is no longer reasonable to speak of global warming as merely another part of the Earth’s periodic climate changes, which occur irrespective of pollution caused by humans. While in 1995, the same panel of scientists reported only a “discernible human influence” on global warming, the report issued last week cites new evidence that most of the warming observed in the last 50 years is directly attributable to human activities such as the burning of oil, gasoline and coal. Over the last 250 years, carbon dioxide levels have increased by 31 percent, reaching a concentration greater than the earth has seen in 420,000 years and possibly even as far back as 20 million years, according to the report. Common sense has long substantiated the link between global warming and air pollution caused by humans, now science unequivocally confirms it.
Perhaps the most tragic facet of this issue is that while environmentalists and industrialists, especially in the United States, will waste time fighting over whether global warming is indeed attributable to the release of greenhouse gases by humans, many developing nations edge closer to catastrophic natural disasters that will have been caused by the negligence of developed countries. While the United States is the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases, accounting for one-fourth of the world total, the U.N. report’s apocalyptic predictions warn of disaster in relatively blameless parts of the world. Africa, home to 14 percent of the world population, is responsible for only 3.2 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. Yet the report claims that Africans face the most direct consequences of extreme weather conditions.
Attempts at cutting the emissions of greenhouse gases have until now been half-hearted and altogether inadequate. Ironically, successful efforts to reduce smog may have inadvertently accelerated global temperature increases by reducing the presence of particles in the air that help deflect the sun’s rays. International treaty talks on global climate change at the Hague disbanded unceremoniously in November when the participants failed to come to consensus on how to implement a 1997 agreement made by industrialized nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Rather than attempting to shirk their legal and moral obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as the United States has done, the industrialized nations of the world must take immediate and decisive action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The consequences of inaction are dire and inevitable.
