Review: An Inconvenient Truth - A few harrowing details about Al Gore's prophetic book on climate crisis.
25/09/06 09:55 Filed in: Environmental
Issues
I not
worried about future generations, nor am I worried about my unborn
grandchildren -- they may not exist.
I'm worried about my future kids, I'm worried about me.
Reading Gore's books is like getting hit in the face by a prize-fighter in slow motion. You can see it coming, you can understand the footsteps - it's simple even! - but it doesn't fail to complete crush your skull. Want a summary of Gore's book? We are screwed. No, that's too passive. We've screwed ourselves.
In the course of my short life I have met people who say - oh global warming, it is just a warm year; pfff, that's just a hoax made by leftists to get votes; global warming? sounds good - I hate winter. First, there is zero doubt among scientists that the planet is warming up. Second, the only people that doubt it are those that have been duped by the hitman scientists hired by oil companies to spread disinformation. Before I read this book I knew the planet was warming up, I knew sea levels were rising, but I didn't know how much, how fast, and most importantly, what the corollary effects would be. So here we go:
Greenland's ice cap, which is melting rapidly, breaks up and slides into the sea. The massive increase in water raises global sea levels by 7m - that's 20ft. Do you live in Richmond? Better move. How about Bangladesh, Florida, Manhattan? Your house is going to be underwater. Holland, which has always been under sea level, will lose 3/4 of its landmass.
Think for a moment about 60m poor and homeless Bangladese trying to find a home. Where do they go? India. Is India going to be happy about 60m refugees? Where do all of the people in Miami move to? Do you think, if the death of 3000 people in 9/11 is enough for war, 60million people looking for a home might have a similar effect?
"But I live inland - that's no concern of mine." Really, well here are the corollary effects of a warmer planet:
--Desertification - parts of the US could lose as much as 60% of their soil moisture, which means - forest fires, crop failures and higher prices.
--Fires - shifts in climate cause drought in some places and floods elsewhere. Higher temperatures makes lightning more common, resulting in more fires, resulting in more CO2.
--Storm strength - Warmer seas and air means stronger storms. Last year the strongest hurricane ever recorded occurred - Hurricane Wilma. Katrina, not nearly as strong, crippled the whole Mississippi area and destroyed a city.
--No clean water - as the glaciers, particularly in the Himalayas, melt, the 40% of humanity in Asia could face a severe shortage of potable water.
--Permafrost melting - the arctic, much of which is in Canada, is accessible due to frozen roads. The number of days with frozen roads has dropped from 210 a year to less than 80 since 1960. Any structure built on the solidity of permafrost will suffer severe structural damage from it's shifting foundations.
--Forest destruction - Pine beetle, the scourge of BC? Cold winters are needed to kill it. Instead, they are killing trees, which then makes forest fires more likely, which increases CO2 and raises the temperature even further.
--Disruption of the Gulf Stream - there is a river of warm currents in the Atlantic that flows from South America to Europe, making Madrid much warmer than New York, despite the same latitude. A large dump of cold water as is coming from Greenland could totally stop the Gulf Stream, resulting, counter-intuitively in an Ice Age. It happened once 10,000 years ago when the last big Glacial lake suddenly dumped from the Great Lakes area into the Atlantic. The world suffered 1000 years of cold temperatures as a result.
--Warmer temperatures also mean an increase in disease, as well as disease bearing insects able to survive in places that were once too cold. Add a pile of corpses from floods and disease increases.
--Ocean acidification -- CO2 makes the ocean acidic. This kills coral reefs. Coral reefs are an important home for thousands of organisms. Goodluck getting sushi when we have made the ocean a wasteland.
Perhaps what will make most people take notice the most will be the economic effects. Insurance companies will no longer be able to predict potential weather damage and may either increase insurance premiums or refuse to insure certain homes or people. This would essentially make a house unsalable. Imagine row upon row of seaside home, slowly being approached by the ocean, with mortgages in the millions and no buyers. What happens to financial institutions when thousands of people declare bankruptcy at once, and also try to make an insurance claim? What then happens to global stock markets and the money you have squirreled away preciously?
Gore's website www.climatecrisis.net has information on what we can do individually to cut our CO2 emissions. Unfortunately, these are "lessen the blow" measures, as scientists are now saying that we are past the tipping point and the large changes are unpreventable. Gore asserts, however, that by making the transition NOW, not when the shit hits the fan, we can bear the hardship we have caused ourselves more ably.
A final note on the book: this book has really affected me, so far as to reconsider my career path. I received the book openly however. A critical problem for this book, despite its simple and graphics heavy design, is that it was written by a former Democratic Vice President. This means that in the polarized US, where the majority of change needs to happen, a large chunk of the populace will dismiss it as "liberal lies". It is hard not to be totally pessimistic about this, but I have tried to be proactive - I used my AC only for half of July and August, I installed compact fluorescent lights which I have been turning off as much as possible and I've been trying to cut my shower length to shorter than 10 minutes. I've been avoiding buying imported food as much as I can. I have been a real "I don't need a bag" nazi.
Despair is defeat, so go to that website!
I'm worried about my future kids, I'm worried about me.
Reading Gore's books is like getting hit in the face by a prize-fighter in slow motion. You can see it coming, you can understand the footsteps - it's simple even! - but it doesn't fail to complete crush your skull. Want a summary of Gore's book? We are screwed. No, that's too passive. We've screwed ourselves.
In the course of my short life I have met people who say - oh global warming, it is just a warm year; pfff, that's just a hoax made by leftists to get votes; global warming? sounds good - I hate winter. First, there is zero doubt among scientists that the planet is warming up. Second, the only people that doubt it are those that have been duped by the hitman scientists hired by oil companies to spread disinformation. Before I read this book I knew the planet was warming up, I knew sea levels were rising, but I didn't know how much, how fast, and most importantly, what the corollary effects would be. So here we go:
Greenland's ice cap, which is melting rapidly, breaks up and slides into the sea. The massive increase in water raises global sea levels by 7m - that's 20ft. Do you live in Richmond? Better move. How about Bangladesh, Florida, Manhattan? Your house is going to be underwater. Holland, which has always been under sea level, will lose 3/4 of its landmass.
Think for a moment about 60m poor and homeless Bangladese trying to find a home. Where do they go? India. Is India going to be happy about 60m refugees? Where do all of the people in Miami move to? Do you think, if the death of 3000 people in 9/11 is enough for war, 60million people looking for a home might have a similar effect?
"But I live inland - that's no concern of mine." Really, well here are the corollary effects of a warmer planet:
--Desertification - parts of the US could lose as much as 60% of their soil moisture, which means - forest fires, crop failures and higher prices.
--Fires - shifts in climate cause drought in some places and floods elsewhere. Higher temperatures makes lightning more common, resulting in more fires, resulting in more CO2.
--Storm strength - Warmer seas and air means stronger storms. Last year the strongest hurricane ever recorded occurred - Hurricane Wilma. Katrina, not nearly as strong, crippled the whole Mississippi area and destroyed a city.
--No clean water - as the glaciers, particularly in the Himalayas, melt, the 40% of humanity in Asia could face a severe shortage of potable water.
--Permafrost melting - the arctic, much of which is in Canada, is accessible due to frozen roads. The number of days with frozen roads has dropped from 210 a year to less than 80 since 1960. Any structure built on the solidity of permafrost will suffer severe structural damage from it's shifting foundations.
--Forest destruction - Pine beetle, the scourge of BC? Cold winters are needed to kill it. Instead, they are killing trees, which then makes forest fires more likely, which increases CO2 and raises the temperature even further.
--Disruption of the Gulf Stream - there is a river of warm currents in the Atlantic that flows from South America to Europe, making Madrid much warmer than New York, despite the same latitude. A large dump of cold water as is coming from Greenland could totally stop the Gulf Stream, resulting, counter-intuitively in an Ice Age. It happened once 10,000 years ago when the last big Glacial lake suddenly dumped from the Great Lakes area into the Atlantic. The world suffered 1000 years of cold temperatures as a result.
--Warmer temperatures also mean an increase in disease, as well as disease bearing insects able to survive in places that were once too cold. Add a pile of corpses from floods and disease increases.
--Ocean acidification -- CO2 makes the ocean acidic. This kills coral reefs. Coral reefs are an important home for thousands of organisms. Goodluck getting sushi when we have made the ocean a wasteland.
Perhaps what will make most people take notice the most will be the economic effects. Insurance companies will no longer be able to predict potential weather damage and may either increase insurance premiums or refuse to insure certain homes or people. This would essentially make a house unsalable. Imagine row upon row of seaside home, slowly being approached by the ocean, with mortgages in the millions and no buyers. What happens to financial institutions when thousands of people declare bankruptcy at once, and also try to make an insurance claim? What then happens to global stock markets and the money you have squirreled away preciously?
Gore's website www.climatecrisis.net has information on what we can do individually to cut our CO2 emissions. Unfortunately, these are "lessen the blow" measures, as scientists are now saying that we are past the tipping point and the large changes are unpreventable. Gore asserts, however, that by making the transition NOW, not when the shit hits the fan, we can bear the hardship we have caused ourselves more ably.
A final note on the book: this book has really affected me, so far as to reconsider my career path. I received the book openly however. A critical problem for this book, despite its simple and graphics heavy design, is that it was written by a former Democratic Vice President. This means that in the polarized US, where the majority of change needs to happen, a large chunk of the populace will dismiss it as "liberal lies". It is hard not to be totally pessimistic about this, but I have tried to be proactive - I used my AC only for half of July and August, I installed compact fluorescent lights which I have been turning off as much as possible and I've been trying to cut my shower length to shorter than 10 minutes. I've been avoiding buying imported food as much as I can. I have been a real "I don't need a bag" nazi.
Despair is defeat, so go to that website!