Former President Bill Clinton asserted in a press conference
Aug. 1 that there is incontrovertible proof of humanity’s
influence on the environment, which will soon cause a series of
catastrophic changes to the global climate.
Because of carbon dioxide emissions caused by power plants, cars
and other fossil fuel-burning machinery, Clinton said, the globe is
heating up, and we are already seeing the results of our
industrialism.
“There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that the
biggest single threat that faces human civilization is climate
change,” London Mayor Ken Livingstone said in a press
conference Aug. 1. “It’s a problem that has been
building slowly, slowly at first, unnoticeably at the beginning of
the industrial revolution 200 years ago.”
But others say slow warming over a 100-year period is not enough
to prove there is a severe warming of the globe, nor that human
industrialization is responsible.
“We don’t understand what causes warm and cold
cycles to appear on this earth ““ there are always theories
but no one can conclusively explain why,” said UCLA
meteorologist James Murakami.
One theory is that the chemistry of the sun has changed slightly
and it is getting hotter, which could account for some of the
warming over the past century, Murakami said.
Either way, the earth has warmed about one degree over the past
100 years, and the effects of that warming are widespread and
severe.
“(Carbon dioxide) and methane absorb heat and keep it from
going back out into space. With more factories and cars you put out
more (carbon dioxide), and you have greater heat-retention
ability,” Murakami said.
No matter the cause, global warming is occurring, he said, and
the polar ice caps are already melting.
In the near future “the ocean could rise … several tens
of feet,” Murakami said. “The state of Florida is
low-lying, and if the ice caps melted we would not have
Florida.”
But losing Florida is just one potential consequence of an
increased global temperature.
“In general you would have hotter summers and not quite as
cold winters,” he said. “There would tend to be a shift
of the subtropic, and much of the farm belt in the U.S. would get
drier, and places in southern Canada would have a more favorable
climate for growing grains and other produce.”
Another consequence of the ice caps melting is the potential for
destroying the gulf current in the Atlantic Ocean, which would
cause harsh winters in Northern Europe.
Livingstone and Clinton are proposing to get every major city
around the world to participate in their effort, and they are
optimistic for success.
But a challenge that still remains is finding conclusive
scientific evidence that greenhouse gas emissions are the only
source of the problem.
“As much as there is overwhelming evidence of global
warming, I cannot say that it is conclusive,” Murakami said.
“You can’t say absolutely that what we are encountering
in this century is not natural.”
“I don’t dispute the assertion that man’s
emissions are accelerating this process, but … we don’t
understand what causes warm and cold cycles to appear on this
earth,” Murakami added.
But no matter the root cause of global warming, greenhouse gas
emissions are a large contributor, and at least speeding up a
natural process, he added.
“I always hear about these organizations trying to reduce
emissions, but unless you do it on a global scale it will not be
wholly effective,” he said.
With reports from Bruin wire services.