On Feb. 2, 2007, the United Nations scientific panel studying
climate change declared that the evidence of a warming trend is
"unequivocal," and that human activity has "very likely" been the
driving force in that change over the last 50 years. The last report by
the group, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in 2001, had
found that humanity had "likely" played a role.
The addition of that single word "very" did more than reflect
mounting scientific evidence that the release of carbon dioxide and
other heat-trapping gases from smokestacks, tailpipes and burning
forests has played a central role in raising the average surface
temperature of the earth by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1900.
It also added new momentum to a debate that now seems centered less
over whether humans are warming the planet, but instead over what to do
about it. In recent months, business groups have banded together to
make unprecedented calls for federal regulation of greenhouse gases.
The subject had a red-carpet moment when former Vice President Al
Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," was awarded an Oscar; and
the Supreme Court made its first global warming-related decision,
ruling 5 to 4 that the Environmental Protection Agency had not
justified its position that it was not authorized to regulate carbon
dioxide.
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The greenhouse effect has been part of the earth's workings since
its earliest days. Gases like carbon dioxide and methane allow sunlight
to reach the earth, but prevent some of the resulting heat from
radiating back out into space. Without the greenhouse effect, the
planet would never have warmed enough to allow life to form. But as
ever larger amounts of carbon dioxide have been released along with the
development of industrial economies, the atmosphere has grown warmer at
an accelerating rate: Since 1970, temperatures have gone up at nearly
three times the average for the 20th century.
The latest report from the climate panel predicted that the global
climate is likely to rise between 3.5 and 8 degrees Fahrenheit if the
carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere reaches twice the level
of 1750. By 2100, sea levels are likely to rise between 7 to 23 inches,
it said, and the changes now underway will continue for centuries to
come.
taken from the new york timesbrought to you by B.Zakhour
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