The Pentagon takes great pride in itself on preparing for the worst, be it war, famine or other calamity. So it may not seem surprising that the Pentagon last year asked two private consultants to consider the potential global impacts of an abrupt and severe change in the world's climate.

Which regions could be hurt the worst, they asked, and what would that mean for U.S. national security?

The scenario sketched out in the report, "Imagining the Unthinkable," may surprise some.

The report suggests global warming already is approaching a threshold beyond which a sudden cooling will begin to set in. The authors present a number of dire consequences in which the current period of global warming ends in 2010, followed by a period of abrupt cooling.

The report stated that as temperatures rise during this decade, some regions experience severe storms and flooding. In 2007, surging seas could break through levees in the Netherlands, making the Hague "unlivable." It further states that by 2020, after a decade of cooling, Europe's climate could very well become "more like Siberia's."

The report predicts "Mega-droughts" could hit southern China and northern Europe around 2010 and last 10 years.

China and India - Will Be The World's Worst Polluters In Global Warming

With a 1.3 billion population, China is now the world's No. 3 oil importer, depending on foreign fuel to run its booming factories. The country's consumption remains strong at a 7% growth projected through 2010. China is doing nothing to curb CO2 pollution.

For more on China, make sure you read my Eyes On China column. China is going to be a huge problem on the oil market because of demand for more and more energy, causing oil prices to soar in the coming years.

Oil Prices Will Soar in 2006, Gasoline Prices Will Soar As Well

Note from DL Dewey: I wrote this article originally in March, 2006 and I predicted then that gasoline prices would sore and they did! And I predict over the following years to 2012, they will continue to rise.

China's ever increasing demand for oil, will cause gasoline prices to soar in the coming months. I predict in the summer of 2006, gasoline prices in the U.S. could very well reach $4 or more dollars a gallon. Iran is another problem as well. If Iran announces they have nuclear capabilities before the summer, this will cause the oil markets worldwide to soar. If this happens, combined with China's increasing demand for oil, look for gasoline prices to soar even higher in 2006. China and India, in ignoring their CO2 problem will add dramatically to the global warming crisis.

CO2 emissions will climb 52 % by 2030 worldwide. China will account for nearly three quarters of the projected increase in CO2. China will produce 19 % of world CO2 emissions by 2030, up from 15 % in 2003. India will be close behind China in the increases in CO2 emissions. China and India, in ignoring their CO2 problem will add dramatically to the global warming crisis.

Here is a complete listing of worldwide CO2 Emissions by country from 1999 to 2004. It is in .pdf format. CO2 Emissions Worldwide - 1999 to 2004

Here is a complete listing of worldwide Energy Consumption Growth by country from 1999 to 2004. It is in .pdf format. Energy Consumption By Country 1999 to 2004

Temperatures in northern Europe could drop by up to 11 degrees F in 20 years if current melting of the ice caps continues.

The United States will not be spared according to the report. Agricultural areas could suffer from soil loss due to higher winds and drier climate.

In China, widespread famine could create chaos, as "a cold and hungry China peers jealously" at Russia's energy resources. In the 2020-2030 period, the reports suggests that a civil war and border wars could break out in China. In a "world of warring states," more countries could then develop nuclear weapons, including Japan, South Korea, Germany, Iran and Egypt. If this occurs, the reports says, "Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life," if these events occur.

All of this sounds pretty grim, and the authors of the report acknowledge in the introduction that the scientists with whom they consulted regard the gloomy scenario as extreme in scope and severity, but that is what the Pentagon asked for, the worst extremes.

The main point here is the scientists based these predictions on a climate event that is believed to have happened over 8,200 years ago and lasted for 100 years.

"We estimate that climate change may already be causing in the region of 160,000 deaths... a year," Andrew Haines of the UK's London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said. Haines presented this at a conference in Russia this year heard a warning that global warming is killing approximately 160,000 people through its effects every year. According to Haines, the numbers dying from "side-effects" of climate change, such as malaria and malnutrition, could almost double by 2020, the climate change conference in Moscow.

"Most deaths would be in developing nations in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia," says Haines. These regions would be worst hit by the spread of malnutrition, diarrhea and malaria as a result of warmer temperatures, droughts and floods.

And in yet another very recent report done for the Pentagon concerning global warming, it paints a dim picture. It was commissioned by Andrew Marshall, a legendary DOD figure, nicknamed "Yoda" for his sagacity. As head of the Pentagon's secretive Office of Net Assessment, Marshall has offered national security assessments to every president since Richard Nixon.

This latest assessment pegs climate change as a far greater danger than even the scourge of international terrorism.

The report is entitled "An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security." The report reads like the plot summary of the movie "The Day After Tomorrow," in which global warming pushes the planet to the edge of anarchy and annihilation.

According to this report, this scenario is not science fiction. According to the Pentagon study, the question is not if abrupt climate change will happen, but when. It could be, according to the report's authors, as soon as the next three years, with the most devastating fallout potentially occurring between 2010 and 2020.

Make sure you read the last paragraph!

The report states that at that point, the world could find itself in the midst of a new ice age in which mega-droughts devastate the world's food supply, drinkable water becomes a luxury worth going to nuclear war, 400 million people are forced to migrate from uninhabitable areas, and riots and wars for survival become commonplace.

You would think this would cause a Red Alert in Tom Ridge's color-coded book.

The Bush White House remains unwilling to address or even acknowledge this report and the perils that could occur. Instead, those in the administration continue to tinker while the atmosphere starts to burn, routinely ignoring scientific evidence and international consensus, and casting a questioning eye on the very idea, let alone the fact, of global warming.

A letter has been signed by 60 prominent scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates and former science advisers to both Republican and Democratic administrations. The letter states very clear that the Bush administration has made an art out of ignoring science. Especially when the matter comes to the issue of global warming.

Who can forget the president's famous CO2 flip-flop, or the way the White House tried to force so many changes to a section of an EPA report dealing with climate change that Christie Todd Whitman finally threw up her hands and decided to simply delete the section on global warming altogether?

The day of blinding the voters with pseudo-science is over. Now that the Pentagon report threatens to put the issue front and center and reframe it as a key component of our national security debate.

Everyone in the Bush administration acted so shocked and surprised when 9/11 happened, even though there had been plenty of red flag warning of al-Qaida's intentions towards the U.S. There can be no surprise this time or for the next President, whoever he may be. We have all been warned.

Now.....do the events predicted thus far sound too far fetched?

Here are some additional facts. Global warming is threatening the world's ski resorts. According to a United Nations report this year, melting at lower altitudes are forcing the sport to move higher and higher up mountains at ski resorts worldwide For example in he village of Kitzbuhel, Austria, the village will eventually be cut off from its ski slopes as Austria's snow line is expected to rise by 656 to 984 feet over the next 30-50 years. Downhill skiing could disappear altogether at some resorts, while at others, a retreating snow line will cut off base villages from their ski runs as soon as 2030, warned the report by the U.N. Environment Program.

''Climate change is happening now. We can measure it,'' said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the U.N. program. ''This study shows that it is not just the developing world that will suffer.'' The report focused on ski resorts in Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Australia, the United States and Canada, using temperature forecasts produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of some 2,000 scientists.

The panel estimated temperatures will rise by a range of 2.5 degrees to 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100 unless dramatic action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. An accord aimed at halting global warming, meanwhile, may be dead. Russia didn't ratify the Kyoto Protocol limiting greenhouse gas emissions because officials in Russia said it will hurt the country's economy. The United States rejected the accord for the same reason. Without Moscow, the protocol will not come into effect even if approved by every other nation because only Russia's industrial emissions are large enough to tip the balance. Many scientists worldwide now agree that carbon dioxide and other so-called ''greenhouse'' gases trap heat in the atmosphere and these gases are creating the ozone holes at both poles and melting both ice caps.

''It appears clear that many resorts, particularly the traditional, lower altitude resorts of Europe, will be either unable to operate as a result of lack of snow or will face additional costs, including artificial snow making, that may render them uneconomic,'' the report said.

U.N. officials presented their findings at an environmental conference of the International Olympic Committee, or IOC, hosted by organizers for the Turin 2006 Olympics. The findings prompted Pal Schmitt, head of the committee's Sport and Environment Commission, to say that global warming will ''probably affect how the IOC chooses host cities for future Winter Games.'' Schmitt said that the IOC still prefers new candidate cities, but it may be forced to return to sites of recent games to avoid having to build structures that could be obsolete in the near future.

The magic number for ski resorts right now is an altitude of 4,265 feet, according to Rolf Buerk, an economic geographer at the University of Zurich who led the research behind the report. At that level and above, there is reliable snowfall. In the future, however, global warming is going to push the regular snowfall altitude to between 4,900 feet and 6,000 feet, Buerk said. ''In Switzerland, several low-lying resorts are already having problems getting enough snow, we see this as a long-term threat,'' said Eduardo Zwissig, marketing manager of the upscale Swiss resort at Gstaad, which is at 3,465-foot level and has skiing from 4,950 to 9,900 feet.

David Chernushenko, a scientist on the climate change panel based in Canada, cited examples in North America where resorts have begun to take steps to be more environmentally friendly. The ''Sustainable Slopes'' program in Aspen, Colo., is a ''world leader in running efficient ski centers,'' with a new ski lift run entirely on power generated by windmills, he said. In Whistler, British Columbia, site of alpine events for the 2010 Olympics, the ''entire town (is) moving toward environmental conservation,'' he said. Ultimately, however, Chernushenko said the onus was on governments. ''The ski, hotel and resort industry is a multinational one,'' he said. ''And if they act together they can apply pressure on politicians,'' Chernushenko added.

A new study release this year by researchers at the University of Leeds in England warns of global extinctions. Hundreds of species of land plants and animals around the globe could vanish or be on the road to extinction over the next 50 years if global warming continues, scientists warn. ''We're already seeing biological communities respond very rapidly to climate warming,'' said Chris Thomas, a conservation biologist at the University of Leeds in England, and the study's lead author.

The researchers assessed the habitat and distribution of plant and animal species spread across six regions that included Mexico, Australia, Brazil, South Africa and Europe. They applied climate change models developed by a U.N. panel that predicted Earth's warming trend will increase average global temperatures by 2.5 degrees to 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100.

Depending on the temperature increase, the researchers found that 15 percent to 37 percent of the studied species will go extinct or be on the road to extinction by 2050. A mid-range forecast of three possible global warming scenarios would claim about a quarter of the species, they found. Earth has an estimated 14 million plant and animal species. Conservationists estimate 12,000 are threatened with extinction, although thousands of others are probably also on the brink.

Is this the way you want to leave mother Earth for your children's children?

The United States and the other world governments must act quickly to impose mandatory limits on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The Bush administration opposes such curbs on the grounds that they could hurt the country's economy. Who cares about the economy if we wind up not having enough oxygen to breathe.

Regardless where you live on this planet, I strongly urge you to write your government elected officials concerning this grave issue confronting the world. This is not something that needs to be corrected tomorrow, it is something that should have been corrected yesterday.

If you live in the United States, you can find find our elected Senator or Representative here:

U.S. Senators

U.S. House Of Representatives

The following is a sample letter that you can copy and paste to write your elected officials.

RE: Global Warming

Dear Honorable

There is no longer a debate whether global warming is occurring and that it is effecting the world in a serious manner. Over 2,000 scientists from across the globe now agree that global warming and destruction of the ozone over the north and south poles has led to serious melting of the ice caps.

Here are just some of the scientific facts substantiating this serious matter:

• Over 5,200 square miles of the West Antarctic ice sheet, with depths of 2,000 feet of ice has melted in the last 3 years.
  
  
• Antarctica's annual loss of 152 cubic kilometers of mass is 36 times the amount of freshwater used by Los Angeles annually.
  
  
• Coral in the Great Barrier Reef off Australia's northeastern coast is dieing due to increased ocean temperature in the region. This will kill off many species of fish.
  
  
• If current melting trends continue, atmospheric CO2, carbon dioxide concentrations will double to preindustrial levels within the next twenty-five years. That will cause global temperatures to rise by an average of 5° degrees and cause sea levels to increase by as much as 20 feet.
  
  
• The new Antarctic measurements, using data from two NASA satellites called the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), found that the amount of water pouring annually from the ice sheet into the ocean -- equivalent to the amount of water the United States uses in three months.
  
  
• Presently, the United States, with less than 5.5% of the world's population has the highest share, 25% of global CO2 emissions worldwide and is increasing due to the current administrations cutbacks on increased greenhouse emissions standards that were to go into effect in 2002 in the U.S.
  
  
• The United States must sign the Kyoto Agreement on global emission standards and must encourage all nations to sign onto it - regardless of the argument it would hurt world economies. We are talking about the survival of mankind if global warming and CO2 and other greenhouse emissions are not reversed.
  
  
• The hole in the ozone at the south pole now encompasses over 11 million square miles. This will lead to increased skin cancers worldwide, weather changes producing droughts or excess wetness in regions of the world not normally seen.
  
  
• Over the last 20 years, the air temperature in southeast Greenland has risen by 5.4 degrees F.
  
  
• In 1999, global warming caused the accelerated melting of two Antarctic ice shelves.
  The Larsen B lost over 660 square miles of area, the Wilkins ice shelf lost over 420 square miles of area.
  
  
• Since 1978, global warming has caused Arctic sea ice to melt at a rate of 9 percent per decade.
  
  
• In the Arctic, North Pole, 5,200 square miles of ice, with thickness of over 2,000 feet has melted in the last three years.

The United States must act quickly to impose mandatory limits on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. I urge you and Congress to quickly submit and pass a BILL to immediately set such limits in place and to reverse the current Administrations position and regulatory practices regarding global warming and CO2 emissions.

There are other renewable energy sources such as, solar energy, non-radioactive fusion producing electricity, [ fusion production is still in the research stage, but promising ], geothermal and gasoline produced from corn and grass that the United States and the world can adapt to and must for the survival of mankind in the years to come.

I expect a reply from you regarding your position on this serious matter confronting not only the United States, but the world.

Sincerely,

• 1. Recycle! Recycle! Recycle! Separate the trash from the treasure. Nowadays it's more than just plastic, glass and paper. Designers have become environmentally conscious and created trendy jeans, rugs, and handbags from recycled products. Who said Mother Earth wasn't a fashion statement?

• 2. Change a Bulb Yes, it's that simple! Although compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL's) are a little pricier upfront, trust me, you save in the long run. They last 10 times as long and have proven to lower energy bills. Converting to energy-efficient lighting can help you use 67% less energy. The following is information to clear up some dis-information that is being circulated concerning the safety of CFL's. CFL bulbs shouldn't be used in track, recessed, or dimmer fixtures and should only be used in dry areas, unless otherwise stated. CFL bulbs also shouldn't be placed in dimmers either. They could bez potential hazard in dimmer switches. Besides, it says on the instructions, DO NOT USE IN dimmer switches. And there is the problem of proper disposal since they do contain traces of Mercury in them. You can't throw these in the trash after they burnout. IKEA has disposal centers setup to collect burned out CFL's. And if you break one, DO NOT get the vacumn cleaner out to vacumn the glass up. You could blow traces of mercury all over the place. Instead, take a damp paper towel and blot the pieces up. When CFLs fail they may emit smoke, an odor, or a popping sound; and the plastic base may become discoloured, charred or deformed. Certification agencies have advised that this failure does not present a shock or fire hazard for approved products. CFL's are not new. They have been around for over 20 years without problems and are tested to be safe so whatever mis-information you may read about them being not safe that is not true. The only concern is the proper disposal of them because of the traces of mercury inside and should you break one in your home. I have used them for over ten years and have not had a problem with them. There are CFL's that are made with ZIRCON aluminum that do not contain any traces of mercury. If you are concerned about the ones that do contain traces of mercury, look for the ones with zircon aluminum, they are just as safe as the other kind with traces of mercury in them. As with any bulb, you need to read the instructions on their use. A woman in Canada didn't bother reading the instructions, and when she dropped one and it broke, she wound up with mercury being blown around because she took out the vacumn cleaner. Reading the instructions would have prevented such a crisis.

• 3. Use Solar Power Why not? You can always count on the sun being there and don't have to wonder how long those batteries have been lingering around in your junk drawer the next time you clean it out. Plus, did I mention it's free! So please, power up that cell cell phone or IPOD using a solar charger. You can find these easily on the internet and they are not that expensive! By the way, if you're still going to use your cell phone battery charger using electricity...DO NOT LEAVE IT PLUGGED IN ! It is using electricity even though you may not be charging your battery. Only plug it in when you do need to charge your cell phone!

• 4. Clean Green Harsh chemicals can not only be harmful to the environment but also to you if it seeps into groundwater. Imagine swallowing the same stuff that you just degreased your kitchen countertops with... do I need to some more! There are several environment-friendly products that are just as effective with poisoning yourself with harmful chemicals! And Mothers...have your children developed asthma, or are developing it? It is most likely the detergent and cleaning products you are using in your home!

• 5. Reuse Shopping Bags Planning a trip to the grocery store? Take along a tote with that shopping list. Not only are you reducing the use of plastic but it may help you stick to your list keeping you on budget. Did you know that is takes 1,000 years for a plastic bag to bio-degrade in a garbage dump?

• 6: Find The Best Energy Star Appliances If you are going to purchase any new appliance this year, look for the eneryg star rating on the appliance. Some are more energy efficient that others. You can save as much as 20% in energy costs by purchasing a new enery star appliance, which will pay for this new appliance in no time!

  7: Buy Local Organic Food If you can buy local organic food. Local growers that grow organic food without using chemical fertilizers or pesticides not only cuts carbon emissions, you will be healthier also!

• 8: Drink Organic Beer If you drink beer, look for the organic manufactured beer. Organic beer manufacturers use less energy and you will be healthier as well!

• 9: Buy Organic Clothes Nike’s new ' Considered' line of footwear is produced with water-soluable glues and no harmful PVC chemicals. The company is also recycling old sneakers and using the materials to make tracks and tennis courts.

  Natural clothing designer Earth Wear sells organic cotton T-shirts for under $10. American Apparel’s ‘Sustainable Edition’ offers clothing at prices comparable to their non-organic counterparts and Patagonia’s organic cotton and hemp selections are particularly stylish and they use manufacturers that are GREEN.

• 10: Boost Your Gas Mileage Need a new car. Purchase one of the newer mileage efficient cars that get upwards of 38 miles per gallon on the highway. This could result in over $600 a year in gas savings, and over 2 tons less carbons put into the atmosphere than SUV's.

• 11: Unplug Electronics Using A Surge Protector Unplug phone chargers, televisions, VCRs andother electronics — don't just turn them off. Plug all your appliances into a surge protector that you can simply turn the OFF switch and turn them all off. According to theDepartment of Energy, nearly 75 percent of all electricity used to power electronics in the average home is consumed by products that are switched off.

• 12: Insulate Your Home and Tune Up Your Furnance Insulate your home and tune up your furnace. You can also reduce your heating and cooling bills by as much as 40% by re-insulating your home.

• 13: Lower Your Hot Water Temperate To 120 Degrees
  Lower the temperature on your hot water tank to 120 degrees.
  Insulate your water heater and all water pipes to reduce heat loss.
  Potential reductions in carbon dioxide emissions if you also install efficient shower heads is 2,480 pounds per year.

Links to the EPA site that lists other things you can do:

You Can Do To Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emission: http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/actionsIndividual.html

http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/ActionsIndividualMakeaDifferenceHome.html

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UPDATE - April, 2007
Dire Predictions Issued By The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

This international panel of scientists predicts the global average temperature could increase by 2 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100 and that sea levels could rise by up to 2 feet.

Scientists have even stated that a slight increase in Earth's rotation rate could result, along with other changes. Glaciers, already receding, will disappear. Epic floods will hit some areas while intense drought will strike others. Humans will face widespread water shortages. Famine and disease will increase. Earth’s landscape will transform radically, with a quarter of plants and animals at risk of extinction.

The timeline issued in this report shows a dismal future for Planet Earth unless manmade global warming issues are not corrected NOW, and even if they are begun, it could be too late for some of these consequences.

2007

More of the world's population now lives in cities than in rural areas, changing patterns of land use. The world population surpasses 6.6 billion. (Peter Crane, Royal Botanic Gardens, UK, Science; UN World Urbanization Prospectus: The 2003 Revision; U.S. Census Bureau)

2008

Global oil production peaks sometime between 2008 and 2018, according to a model by one Swedish physicist. Others say this turning point, known as “Hubbert’s Peak,” won’t occur until after 2020. Once Hubbert’s Peak is reached, global oil production will begin an irreversible decline, possibly triggering a global recession, food shortages and conflict between nations over dwindling oil supplies. (doctoral dissertation of Frederik Robelius, University of Uppsala, Sweden; report by Robert Hirsch of the Science Applications International Corporation)

2020

Flash floods will very likely increase across all parts of Europe.
Less rainfall could reduce agriculture yields by up to 50 percent in some parts of the world.
World population will reach 7.6 billion people. (U.S. Census Bureau)

The Global Warming Threat

2030

Diarrhea-related diseases will likely increase by up to 5 percent in low-income parts of the world.

Up to 18 percent of the world’s coral reefs will likely be lost as a result of climate change and other environmental stresses. In Asian coastal waters, the coral loss could reach 30 percent.

World population will reach 8.3 billion people. (U.S. Census Bureau)

Warming temperatures will cause temperate glaciers on equatorial mountains in Africa to disappear. (Richard Taylor, University College London, Geophysical Research Letters:)

In developing countries, the urban population will more than double to about 4 billion people, packing more people onto a given city's land area. The urban populations of developed countries may also increase by as much as 20 percent. (World Bank: The Dynamics of Global Urban Expansion)

2040

The Arctic Sea could be ice-free in the summer, and winter ice depth may shrink drastically. Other scientists say the region will still have summer ice up to 2060 and 2105. (Marika Holland, NCAR, Geophysical Research Letters)

2050

Small alpine glaciers will very likely disappear completely, and large glaciers will shrink by 30 to 70 percent. Austrian scientist Roland Psenner of the University of Innsbruck says this is a conservative estimate, and the small alpine glaciers could be gone as soon as 2037. (IPCC)

In Australia, there will likely be an additional 3,200 to 5,200 heat-related deaths per year. The hardest hit will be people over the age of 65. An extra 500 to 1,000 people will die of heat-related deaths in New York City per year. In the United Kingdom, the opposite will occur, and cold-related deaths will outpace heat-related ones.

World population reaches 9.4 billion people. (U.S. Census Bureau)

Crop yields could increase by up to 20 percent in East and Southeast Asia, while decreasing by up to 30 percent in Central and South Asia. Similar shifts in crop yields could occur on other continents.

As biodiversity hotspots are more threatened, a quarter of the world’s plant and vertebrate animal species could face extinction. (Jay Malcolm, University of Toronto, Conservation Biology)

2070

As glaciers disappear and areas affected by drought increase, electricity production for the world’s existing hydropower stations will decrease. Hardest hit will be Europe, where hydropower potential is expected to decline on average by 6 percent; around the Mediterranean, the decrease could be up to 50 percent.

Warmer, drier conditions will lead to more frequent and longer droughts, as well as longer fire-seasons, increased fire risks, and more frequent heat waves, especially in Mediterranean regions.

2080

While some parts of the world dry out, others will be inundated. Scientists predict up to 20 percent of the world’s populations live in river basins likely to be affected by increased flood hazards. Up to 100 million people could experience coastal flooding each year. Most at risk are densely populated and low-lying areas that are less able to adapt to rising sea levels and areas which already face other challenges such as tropical storms.

Coastal population could balloon to 5 billion people, up from 1.2 billion in 1990.

Between 1.1 and 3.2 billion people will experience water shortages and up to 600 million will go hungry.

?Sea levels could rise around New York City by more than three feet, potentially flooding the Rockaways, Coney Island, much of southern Brooklyn and Queens, portions of Long Island City, Astoria, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, lower Manhattan and eastern Staten Island from Great Kills Harbor north to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. (NASA  GISS)

2085

The risk of dengue fever from climate change is estimated to increase to 3.5 billion people.

2100

A combination of global warming  and other factors will push many ecosystems to the limit, forcing them to exceed their natural ability to adapt to climate change. (IPCC)

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels will be much higher than anytime during the past 650,000 years.

Ocean pH levels will very likely decrease by as much as 0.5 pH units, the lowest it’s been in the last 20 million years. The ability of marine organisms such as corals, crabs and oysters to form shells or exoskeletons could be impaired.

Thawing permafrost and other factors will make Earth’s land a net source of carbon emissions, meaning it will emit more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than it absorbs.

Roughly 20 to 30 percent of species assessed as of 2007 could be extinct by 2100 if global mean temperatures exceed 2 to 3 degrees of pre-industrial levels.

New climate zones appear on up to 39 percent of the world’s land surface, radically transforming the planet. (Jack Williams, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

A quarter of all species of plants and land animals—more than a million total—could be driven to extinction. The IPCC reports warn that current “conservation practices are generally ill-prepared for climate change and effective adaptation responses are likely to be costly to implement.”

Increased droughts could significantly reduce moisture levels in the American Southwest, northern Mexico and possibly parts of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, effectively recreating the “Dust Bowl” environments of the 1930s in the United States. (Richard Seager, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Science)

2200

An Earth day will be 0.12 milliseconds shorter, as rising temperatures cause oceans to expand away from the equator and toward the poles, one model predicts. One reason water will be shifted toward the poles is most of the expansion will take place in the North Atlantic Ocean, near the North Pole. The poles are closer to the Earth’s axis of rotation, so having more mass there should more speed up the planet’s rotation. (Felix Landerer, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Geophysical Research Letters)

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RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES CAN SOLVE THE PROBLEMS

Windmill Farms Could Provide 20% of Nations Electrical Needs Instead of Coal.

In 2001, enough new wind turbines were erected to provide electricity to nearly 475,000 homes annually in the country. It has been shown that if wind farms were put on less than 1% of American land, they would provide nearly 20% of our electricity, about what we get from nuclear power or from oil imports. If we used 2% of American land, we could do almost do away with nearly every nuclear power plant and would not be dependent on middle-eastern arab oil or the purchasing of Russian oil.

Renewable Cheap Energy Sources Right Here In Our Own Backyard

About 8 percent of our energy came from renewable sources in 1999. This increased to 10% in 2000. However, only 1% of this renewable energy is coming from the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. If the share of renewable energy in these states increased to just 20 percent, farmers, ranchers which are in poor financial shape would benefit in 170 million in lease payment for wind turbines. Carbon dioxide emissions from the region's electrical plants would fall by 40 percent. Carbon dioxide is the leading cause of global warming. A study in Colorado said that 2.4 billion in new investments and over 18,000 jobs could be seen by 2020. Actual studies indicate that as much as 30% of our energy requirements could come from renewable energy sources within our country. Presently, we get approximately 25% of our energy oil resources from Saudi Arabia. However, in President Bush's budgets, funds that were previously there to help in the building of these wind turbine farms have been cut. Some existing projects in Utah and California have been stopped.

There are other renewable energy sources such as, solar energy, non-radioactive fusion producing electricity, [ fusion production is still in the research stage, but promising ], geothermal and gasoline produced from corn and grass that the world can adapt to. There is one city that has adapted its garbage dumping sites into methane producing fields for energy. The technology is there, the problem is frankly, as long as BIG OIL controls the world economy through energy supplies, renewable energy sources will not be fully utilized...and that is where you come in.

If Sweden Can Do It - Why Can't The Rest Of The World?

Sweden was addicted to oil like the U.S. was. However, Sweden has slowly being changing its dependence on oil since 1980. In 1977, Sweden got 77% of its energy from oil. Even with industrial production that has increased in Sweden since 1977, by 2003, this 77% has dropped to 34%. Sweden has a plan by 2020 to "kick" the addiction to oil and this percentage will be less than 10%.

How Has Sweden Done It?

Sweden has enormous natural resources like the U.S. has. Geothermal, wind, solar and most important they are not messing around with vehicle emissions. Sweden is requiring new cars being sold in Sweden to run on ethanol or biogas. 20% of the vehicles and buses in the costal city of Helsingborg are already running on ethanol or biogas. Biogas is made from garbage and other organic waste from household and farms. Can you guess from what? Cow manure. They have mandated that by 2010, 50% of all cars and vehicles must run on one of these two energy sources.

Sweden has been building geothermal power plants and solar energy power plants. The City of Lund gets 30% of its heat from geothermal plants. A wind farm near the city of Aapua's supplies 40% of the electricity needs for the city.

217 Mayors Nationwide Are Not Waiting On the U.S. Government
To Do Something About Global Warming

Seattle Mayor, Greg Nichols has news for President George W. Bush, "Global warming is also local." Nichols has joined 217 other Mayors across the country to do something about global warming by implementing new local pollution regulations and programs.

In February 2005, when the Kyoto Agreement took effect in 141 countries but no in the U.S. because President Bush would not endorse it, Nickels created the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. So far, 218 Mayors in 39 states, representing 44 million Americans have signed onto the program. Due to these new programs and regulations that have been set in place by these Mayors, coal-fire power plants are not being built. In Austin recently, the city owned utility electric company cancelled plans to build a 500 Megawatt coal-fired power plant. The reason, it will prevent 7% more CO2 emissions being released in the area.

We Must Act Now !

My fellow Americans and readers throughout the world, this is no laughing matter, we must do something about this serious matter today, before it is too late - please take the time and make sure you write your Congressman today!

One last comment. I am so tired of hearing ignorant statements like:

"Oh the ice caps always melt." - or - "The earth is just going through a phase." - or this selfish remark,
"I won't be around when everything turns bad so I don't care."

If you haven't understood how grave this matter is after reading this article, I suggest you go back and re-read it.

I am also tired of those that regardless of the facts and truth you put before them, especially if you told them that the sky was actually falling... they would stand there until the sky fell on their head...arguing with you that the sky was not falling. This is was I call pure ignorance. Wake up, the images you've seen do not lie !

Think of the world you are leaving your grandchildren if you don't!

~ David Lawrence Dewey

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IMPORTANT UPDATE: Make sure you read about the new documentary Read About the Film - Click Here Do you want to die young with a diseased heart? Develop needless high blood presure? Develop diabetes type II ? If not - then you need to watch this new documentary ! THE FILM HAS WON FIVE FILM AWARDS !

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Do you care about your health, the health of your children, your family?
Then make sure you read my column:
Hydrogenated Oils - Silent Killers
Learn the truth about these deadly oils in our food supplies

Read about Greta Ferebee's and my efforts in a nationwide petition campaign to get these and other toxins out of the food supply. VISIT our website:

DoWeCare.org

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*The claims made about these products on or through this site have not been evaluated by the United States Food and Drug Administration and are not approved to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease. The information provided on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other healthcare professional or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosis or treatment of any health problem or for prescription of any medication or other treatment. You should consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise or supplementation program, before taking any medication, or if you have or suspect you might have a health problem.

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In the United States, medical diagnosis and treatment is constrained by law to be the exclusive purview of state licensed practitioners. The diseases discussed on this site are serious, sometimes life threatening matters. Neither the content nor the intent of this column may or should be construed as the giving of medical advice or as recommending any treatment of any kind. The purpose of this column is to support informed discussions, to provide medical research links and and to help the patient identify the doctors who keep up with advances in their field.

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© All Rights Reserved. Use of these collected data is restricted. Newspapers, syndicates or publications wishing to use this information or his columns, email your request with details to Mr. Dewey's agent. Email Contacts for DL Dewey. For any other use, DLDEWEY for permission to use column or columns, detailing your request to use which column or columns and for what purpose.

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