A Sobering Look at Global Warming

by Deb Powerscredit: larsraun@stock.xchang

Last week in Italy, G8 global leaders met to discuss a number of things, but the environment was high on the list. Interestingly, there's a new sense of urgency to the calls for action against global warming. More than one group addressed the world leaders with facts about how global warming is affecting their world right now - and have been affecting it for decades. This morning, I ran across two resources that bring home the true effects of global warming with pictures and words. If you haven't seen these yet, you really need to take half an hour out of your busy week and take a look at how global warming is affecting the world in which we live - not in some far off future, but right now, while you're sipping your morning coffee. 

The Climate Hot Map at Climate Hot Map shows global warming fingerprints and harbingers.

ClimateHotMap.org features a stunning graphical image of how and where global warming is affecting the world right now. When you click on a tag on the interactive global warming map, a window opens with an explanation of that particular marker. Many of the markers include photos of the damage the change has brought to that particular region. Some examples:

Marker 76: New England

Double normal rainfall, June 1998. Rainfall in Boston on June 13-14 broke a 117-year-old record, closing Logan Airport and two interstate roads. Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts each received more than double their normal monthly rainfall.

Marker 39: Chesapeake Bay

Marsh and island loss. The current rate of a sea level rise is three times the historical rate and appears to be accelerating. Since 1938, about one-third of the marsh at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge has been submerged.

Marker 70: Antarctic Peninsula

Warming 5 times global average. Since 1945, the Antarctic Peninsula has experienced a warming of about 4.5^oF (2.5^oC). The annual melt season has increased by 2 to 3 weeks in just the past 20 years.

Want more? Then head on over to World View of Global Warming and spend some time going through the photographs that document the way that global warming is changing our world. You'll see how the rising seas are affecting homes and lives from Indonesia to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, where the land is eroding away at the rate of 12 feet per year. Read about how global warming affects weather patterns and how that is costing us all billions of dollars.

Once you've been properly horrified by the growing evidence and effects of global warming, take one more step - point your browser at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy for tips on how you can make a difference by making small changes in your lifestyle. And I do mean small - examples of the tips at ACEEE include using the right size pan for your burners - a six inch pan on an 8 inch burner element wastes 40% of the heat produced - and moving your refrigerate away from sunny windows, dishwasher and oven so that it doesn't have to work as hard to keep things cool.