FaceGlobalWarming.com

Will polar bears make the leap into the next century? Recent studies project that if Arctic sea ice continues to disappear, so will the polar bear in much of its current range.

Polar bears have a low reproductive rate. To feed themselves and their cubs, they rely on sea ice for platforms to hunt for their main source of food: seals.

In September 2006, the extent of sea ice in the Artic reached a record low. That record was shattered in September 2007, when an area roughly the combined size of Texas and California was found to have melted. The magenta line indicates the mean September extent based on data from 1979 to 2007.

Global temperature in 2003 was the hottest in the historical record, and the temperature increase over the 20th century is likely to be the highest of the past millennium. Global average temperatures have warmed about one degree Fahrenheit (0.6C) since 1900. The ten warmest years on record have occurred since 1987, seven of them since 1994.

This article highlights early and emerging warning signs of global warming for each of the world’s regions, namely, Africa, Antartica, Asia, Central America, Europe & Russia, North America, Oceania, and South America.

Every Thursday night, like every other householder in our neighborhood, I collect our waste paper, cans, bottles and plastic and put them out on the street outside our house. On Friday morning a local municipal truck comes by and collects it for recycling. I pay for this service through my taxes. Apart from some gripes about the efficiency of the service, few local people complain about it. And only a few extremists who tend to oppose government action in all its forms object to the recycling on principle.

If climate change is primarily the result of burning fossil fuels isn’t offsetting with trees simply a distraction? Shouldn’t we focus on renewable energy projects that can replace the use of fossil fuel?

It’s true that burning fossil fuels accounts for the largest proportion of carbon emissions. Nevertheless, the loss of trees plays a significant role. The conversion of forests has contributed around 30% of the total carbon build up in the atmosphere since 1850. And it continues - deforestation still accounts for over 20% of emissions a year. Not only is the destruction of forests releasing huge volumes of carbon into the atmosphere, but we are losing vast quantities of one of the few mechanisms we know that can take carbon out of the atmosphere - trees.

Please be mindful that although most statistics in this article may refer to pounds sterling readers in other countries will realize that the increasing costs of fuel from the pumps affects them too wherever they are resident.

We are now in mid 2008, last year’s predictions of high prices for foods, higher energy bills, rising fuel prices and general belt tightening have now been proven not to be scare mongering but real life fact; and all put together its not gone down at all well with us.