Global Warning: The Last Chance for Change
By Paul Brown, Forward by Geid Leipold
Reader’s Digest/Dakini Books 2007
Order at Amazon
If a picture is worth a thousand words then Paul Brown’s Global Warning is a stack of visual poetry ten feet thick. This exquisite book features so many full color illustrations packed on each of its 300 plus pages that they virtually tumble out of it and form a pile of nature’s premier eye candy at the lucky reader’s feet. Half page, full page, double page; breathtaking images from land, sea, time, and deep space courtesy of world-class photography grace every glossy page. In between author Paul Brown weaves the photos and data step by step into a coherent, powerful lesson easily followed by natural science patrons of all ages and educational backgrounds, while serving up something for even the veteran wonder junkie: the earth’s climate is changing, urged on by a growing wave of humanity smothering the world in a blanket of flesh and choking greenhouse gases, and the window of time left to reverse course may be closing at an alarming rate. Somehow the book delivers all this for around $ 25.00 US depending on where you buy it, making Global Warning one hell of a Christmas bargain for the environmentally conscious progressive or climate change conservative skeptic near and dear to you this holiday season.
We humans are visual creatures, and Paul Brown taps into that sensory vector as solidly as the optic nerve attaches to the human brain. But these aren’t just pretty pictures designed to elicit a gasp of delight. The images are eerie, at times foreboding, of a planet knocked off balance, now trying to send a message to the bipedal apes that ride her around the sun. Decoding that message is how the book begins ...
The Blomstrandbeen Glacier 1918 and 2002. Used with permission.
In geological terms humans have mayfly lifespans. Nevertheless we can readily see the changes occurring even in that short interval. The change in the glacier above is merely one of several dramatic examples presented in the book to reinforce the initial thesis: climatic conditions are changing fast enough to melt mountains of ice.
The Arctic Ice Cap is retreating: Spring and Summer chip away at Winter’s icy grip earlier every year; tiny rivulets form hidden streams and join into concealed rivers loosening the foundation of vast, ancient ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica; great reefs bleach, fail, and die as deserts bloom and clear cuts widen under skies charged full of energy borne on dry wind or driving rain. Year after year empirical observations on the earth’s surface outpace what were, just a decade or two ago, considered worst case scenario computer climate models. And we may be seeing the proverbial tip of the calving ice berg.
Scientists believe that time is already very short -- there may be as little as ten years to prevent irreversible climate change. Yet politicians who have been made aware of the threat continue to act as it were some far off threat.
Once a critical tipping is reached, future events may be unstoppable. And an average global rise of 2 or 3 degrees C will be distributed unevenly, with the polar regions perhaps taking the worst of it. If the average temperature in Greenland goes up another 2.7 C, the ice sheet will melt. It won't happen immediately, but once it begins there may be no stopping it. That alone would raise sea levels more than 20 feet. Large population centers would disappear under the water. Florida might resemble the island nation of Maldives (right), perhaps with Miami standing in as the capital Malé (Below left).
Higher sea levels will be complicated even more by changes in weather. More heat means more energy to drive storms harder and further. Large swaths of the planet depend on seasonal rain, glacier meltwater, and predictable flooding to harvest key crops. Cereal grains like wheat, corn, and rice make up the majority of caloric intake for mankind. In addition to more intense hurricanes and tornadoes, shifting weather patterns could produce floods where there was drought and vice-versa and, strangely enough, more blizzards in temperate latitudes. The water spout captured on film in the Florida Keys below right by a NOAA photographer below is an elegant and mostly harmless example of severe weather.
Carbon sinks in the ocean may already be strained to the breaking point. And changes in salinity and chemistry causes coral reef bleaching. Some species die off or become extinct, others gain an upper hand. And the lucky winners might include biota that are useless, indifferent, or hostile to the web of life and the global ecosystem upon which mechanized agriculture, fishing, and ranching rests.
Dr. Peter Harrison stands in the midst of bleached section of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. This image is a two-page, full color spread giving it a distorted fish eye appearance here. Used with permission.
The Koyoto Protocol, the add-on to the original convention, provided the major mechanism for taking these steps by giving all industrial countries legally binding targets that must be met by 2012. Although all 36 industrial countries originally sign up to this deal, George W. Bush repudiated America's target and his country's involvement as soon as he was elected. Only Australia followed his lead. -- Page 205
Brown notes in word and pictures that the price we pay for fossil fuel at the pump is nothing compared to what it costs us overall. Thousands of Americans and millions of people in other countries have paid for oil and natural gas with their lives. The fight against global terrorism, the search for alternative renewable energy sources, and global warming are all different sides of the same die. So far, too many leaders both here and abroad have chosen to wager our economic health and global security on a finite resource already barely able to keep up with growing demand, and which may soon peak.
Imagine how much havoc violent extremists -- heavily financed by sympathetic regimes in oil producing nations -- could wreak with oil topping $ 200 a barrel or more. Imagine millions of men, women, and children facing a short lifetime of hopeless poverty living in garbage at best, and rising seas and starvation at the worst; think of the man in this photo from the book and uncounted more like him, whose only sure path to financial relief for he and his family -- and alleged spiritual salvation for his own tormented soul -- is to strap on a suicide vest and become an intelligent, mobile guided missile. Imagine all that, and climate change becomes more than environmental issue: it's a global powder keg waiting for a match to light the fuse.
So if it's all that and more, what can we do? Can we even do anything? According to Paul Brown, the answer is yes. We can provide companies incentives to limit carbon emissions, encourage conservation with tax breaks for homeowners and businesses. We can and must invest in cleaner energy. And if you think that means clunky 1970s style technology or small-time hippy solar water heaters, check out the sweet lines on the electric Tesla motor car Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is standing next to, or the graceful curves on the massive wind turbine next to that.
The fact is we in the US know how to tackle massive engineering and manufacturing challenges, there is no reason why the rest of the world cannot do it, or at least follow our lead if we can light the way. We know how to approach problems that demand cooperation between private capital, industry, and government funding and management. We've done it before, we can do it again. And at the end of every one of those national challenges were lucrative technologies. The microchip and PC for starters, which have made the developers and pioneers some of the richest people in the world.
All we lack is political leadership and national focus. And that's precisely the hopeful note where Paul Brown's Global Warning ends, and where, most importantly, you the netroots progressive activist begins.
From the back cover -- Paul Brown was the environmental correspondent for the Guardian newspaper for 16 years and has worked in newspaper journalism for more than 40 years. He has traveled extensively to investigate environmental problems and has attended many international conferences on environmental matters, including the earth summits at Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg. He has written extensively about climate change, population, biodiversity, pollution, energy, desertification, and ocean management. Brown has appeared in and written television documentaries on environmental issues, contributed to books on green politics, and is the author of several books on the environment