July 06, 2007
You read about the 5 acre-sized lake that suddenly disappeared in Chili? Climate change has been identified as melting glacial ice built up such pressure that an ice wall broke, spilling all of this lake into the ocean.
CO2 has increased from the pre-industrial level of 280 parts per million (ppm) to 383 ppm today and is rising by about 2 ppm per year, with 450 ppm regarded as a dangerous tipping point.
Maybe we're closer to that than we think. Like the first skin blemishes on the skin of a pestilence victim, worrying signs are emerging right now.
Highly regarded NASA scientist Jim Hansen warns that catastrophic Antarctic ice sheet melting could be much closer than we think. The Chilean disappearing lake could be the model for what might happen to huge chunks of Antarctic or Greenland ice, resulting in rapid sea level rise. And the UN' top disaster prevention official Salvano Briceno, director of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction gave warnings last week, responding to widespread wild weather from Pakistan to the UK. “We know what's going to happen and we can prepare for it”, he said.
A change in thinking is so urgently needed. Now! A change from thinking about ourselves as individual consumers who can act as if without limits and as if independent of natural cycles and processes to thinking as interdependent, social beings, who must love and respect each other and the Earth, or be doomed to merely live to survive.
There's nothing to stop you from making that choice right now, regardless of who you're with or where you are. Just do it!
This Saturday, July 7 marks an extraordinary global moment. Over two billion people, across all continents people are gathering for Al Gore's global Live Earth Event. This music-filled event aims to raise awareness of the predicament we're in, and to demand urgent and practical solutions to our global climate crisis. Look for an event close to you! And MoveOn is organizing LiveEarth house parties.
Want to refresh yourself on causes and effects of global warming? Just go here http://www.alternate-energy-sources.com/cause-of-global-warming.html, but be warned, things are moving so fast that I can barely keep up with developments...
Have a great weekend!
Cheers,
Erik Leipoldt
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