In case you missed the thoughoughly depressing report yesterday from Susan Solomon’s climate change update, the newly released findings of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado states that even if we were to stop all carbon emissions right now, some damage to the planet will not be reversed for a thousand years.
Read that again. Even if we totally stop NOW, conditions will keep on getting worse for thirty generations.
In her paper, Solomon, a leader of the International Panel on Climate Change and one of the world’s best known researchers on the subject, noted that temperatures around the globe have risen and changes in rainfall patterns have been observed in areas around the Mediterranean, southern Africa, and southwestern North America.
Warmer climate also is causing expansion of the ocean, and that is expected to increase with the melting of ice on Greenland and Antarctica, the researchers said.
There is almost nothing hopeful about this report, except we can “hope” it scares the crap outta people and gets them motivated for big, drastic changes.
It might also be worth thinking about this:
Beavers Offer Solution to Climate Change
All Things Considered, May 3, 2008 · In the Southwest U.S., biologists are talking about returning beavers to rivers they once inhabited in order to fight droughts — which are expected to get worse as the globe warms. Beaver dams create great sponges that store lots of water.
