Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot
‘YESTERDAY we brought you news that a million species of animals, including a third of all mammals, are under threat in the next 50 years from global warming.
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| ‘Come on in! The melting ice cap’s lovely’ |
Today, we get our calculator out and can tell you that, assuming the million species go extinct at a steady rate, we have lost 55 species in the past 24 hours.
Look out of your window (assuming you are not, like us, walled up in a dank basement with only a single 40W bulb to provide both heat and light) and see if you can work out which ones didnt make it through the night.
(Of course, we advise you to use your common sense. The fact that there isnt a herd of white rhino charging down the high street in Brighouse does not necessarily mean that they have gone the way of the dodo.)
And then ask yourself who is mainly responsible for the climate change that is causing this indiscriminate slaughter of animals.
Sir David King, the Governments chief scientific adviser, is in no doubt, telling the Independent that the United States, as the worlds biggest polluter, needs to take the problem more seriously.
In my view, he says, climate change is the most severe problem that we are facing today, more serious even than the threat of terrorism.
The Bush administrations strategy relies largely on market-based incentives and voluntary action…but the market cannot decide that mitigation is necessary, nor can it establish the basic international framework in which all actors can take their place.
Denying the reality of global warming is increasingly becoming akin to membership of the Flat Earth Society average temperatures have risen by 0.6C in the past century, sea levels are rising, ice caps are melting, floodings becoming more frequent and even Scotland had a nice summer last year.
But President Bush wants more research before he commits the United States to act, suggesting that climate change is a natural phenomenon and not at all linked to the massive amounts of CO2 we release into the atmosphere.
Just as President Bushs position on this issue is not at all linked to his connections (and those of many within his administration) with the oil industry.’
Posted: 9th, January 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
