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The film ' An Inconvenient Truth ' is a factual account of the impact of global warming. It is both shocking and sobering. You will be dismayed by what you see and inspired to do something about it. How you feel about the subject of global warming will be forever changed. Watch the trailer

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Introduction

Is Global Warming for Real?

Yes, global warming is real and is happening now. The scientific evidence is indisputable and the effects are already plain to see. The picture below shows Argentina's Upsala Glacier that was once the largest in South America. It is now disappearing at a rate of 200 metres per year.  More Pictures...

More on Global Warming

Global warming is already starting to wreak havoc on our fragile eco-systems and threatening the survival of countless species on land and sea. Global warming poses a serious threat to life as we know it and is unlike anything the planet has experienced in the past, and the effects will only get worse if we don't take this seriously and do something now. Achim Steiner, the executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, said that "The public should not sit back and say 'There's nothing we can do'. "Anyone who would continue to risk inaction on the basis of the evidence presented here will one day in the history books be considered irresponsible."

On February 2nd, 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a landmark report saying they have little doubt global warming is caused by man, and predicting that hotter temperatures and rises in sea level will "continue for centuries" no matter how much humans control their pollution. The report is the work of more than 2,000 scientists from 113 countries whose drafts were reviewed by scores of governments, industry and environmental groups.

Click here to download the IPCC report: IPCC's Climate Change 2007: Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability

The gold-standard Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report represents "a real convergence happening here, a consensus that this is a total global no-brainer," says U.S. climate scientist Jerry Mahlman, former director of the federal government's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in New Jersey. Mahlman, who crafted the IPCC language used to define levels of scientific certainty, says the new report will lay the blame at the feet of fossil fuels with "virtual certainty." A top U.S. government scientist, Susan Solomon, said "there can be no question that the increase in greenhouse gases are dominated by human activities." ( Ref: USA Today)

The IPCC scientists also projected the effects of future warming. Assuming that nothing's done to slow greenhouse emissions, the February report predicted a temperature increase of roughly 3°C toward the end of the century, drying at lower latitudes, more precipitation at higher latitudes, and rising sea levels. This report finds that such a warming will bleach most coral reefs by mid-century, drying will begin decreasing crop yields at lower latitudes within a few decades, and sea level rise and tropical cyclone intensification will increase the likelihood of millions of people being flooded out each year on river mega-deltas such as that of the Ganges-Brahmaputra in southern Asia.

"You don't want to be poor and living on a river delta or the Florida coast," says climate scientist Stephen Schneider of Stanford University, a coordinating lead author. The poor--especially subsistence farmers--tend to be more vulnerable to climate change, notes the report. And they are least able to adapt, say by building levees against storms or dams for irrigation. Schneider's other advice: "Try not to go over 2°C or 3°C because that triggers the really nasty stuff." With that much warming, the bad effects of this century only get worse, and the rare benefits, such as higher crop yields in wetter areas, fade. To avoid that disaster, next month's IPCC report will talk about how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

There are still many global warming doubters and deniers out there. They attempt to discredit the IPCC as a trusted authority and tries to make the case that there is no correlation between the increase in carbon dioxide and temperature. It blames sunspots, volcanoes, water vapor and other natural causes. Granted, climate science is very complex and these natural effects certainly have a major influence on the climate. However, the daily release of over 70 million tons of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is now proven to have a significant impact on the climate. So does methane from livestock, a greenhouse gas that is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Nineteen of the 20 hottest years on record have occurred since 1980, according to IPCC studies.

But the debate about whether global warming is caused by human activity is over between genuine climate scientists, despite the spin produced by the so-called scientists hired by the oil industry and attempts by the Repulican party to dismiss global warming as a hoax. The National Journal “ Congressional Insiders Poll ,” conducted in April 2006, surveyed 113 members of Congress — 10 Senate Democrats, 48 House Democrats, 10 Senate Republicans, and 45 House Republicans — about their positions on global warming. The results were startling. Only 13 percent of congressional Republicans say they believe that human activity is causing global warming, compared to 95 percent of congressional Democrats. Moreover, the number of Republicans who believe in human-induced global warming has actually dropped since April 2006, when the number was 23 percent.

Global Warming is not caused by a natural cycle, sun spots, or any other fantasy that the doubters can dream up so we can avoid facing the grim reality. It is an entirely man-made problem and can no longer be ignored. Solid scientific evidence and the consensus of practically every scientist around the world is confirmation of an impending and catastrophic climate change. Scientific academies of 11 countries, including those of the United States and Britain, released a joint letter saying, "The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action."⁸

Leading scientists are issuing warnings that we now have less than 10 years to curb carbon dioxide emissions. James Hansen of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has warned that if we do not get a grip on this threat, we will create a fundamentally “different planet.” Without big reductions in emissions, the midrange projections of most scenarios envision a rise of 4 degrees or so in this century, four times the warming in the last 100 years.

We can't wait any longer to do something. The climate is getting hotter and we're causing it. And we are well on our way to a tipping point where there is no return. "The only responsible thing you, as a concerned individual, can do is to reduce your own emissions as far and as quickly as possible."¹

Things have got to change, and change fast. It will take people to show an interest in global warming and gain a fundamental understanding of the problem. It will take people willing to make small changes in the way they live. It will take people to speak out and vote for political leaders who understand the problem and who are willing to stand up to big oil and other special interests and do whatever it takes to make the necessary changes. The environment can't tolerate too much more of the Bush administration's continuing abuse.

We all live on planet earth, so this is a problem for practically every living creature. Global warming over the next century could trigger a catastrophe to rival the worst mass extinction in the history of the planet.

We can't just say, "there's nothing I can do, so let someone else worry about it." This problem won't go away on its own and it can't be ignored - not if you care about the lives of our future generations and the thousands of species that inhabit this planet who are threatened by eco-system destruction and extinction. What kind of world would we be leaving to our children? It's really too horrible to think about.

Public awareness and education about the global warming crisis is vital to solving the problem. According to a July 2006 PEW Research Center Report , only four-in-ten (41%) believe human activity such as burning fossil fuels is causing global warming. While 41% say global warming is a very serious problem, 33% see it as somewhat serious and roughly a quarter (24%) think it is either not too serious or not a problem at all. However, according to a survey conducted by Time magazine and ABC News, 85 percent of Americans think that global warming is already happening, and 35 percent want to see the government do more to fight it. Regardless of what surveys say about how many people believe it, global warming is real and it is happening now.

In any event, the issue of global warming ranks as a relatively low public priority, well behind education, the economy, and the war in Iraq. Thus, the subject rarely makes it to the platforms of political candidates. That needs to change. Global warming needs to move to the top of the political agenda. Here's why. If the consequences of global warming come to pass, all other problems will seem trivial in comparison.

Most countries around the world shown a much greater level of concern. Why the disparity? U.S. citizens are being duped by the oil, coal and auto industries, and the politicians who are in their back pockets.

We need to spread the word about global warming and that it is real. Here is an excerpt from StopGlobalWarming.org.

"Global warming isn’t opinion. It’s a scientific reality. And the science tells us that human activity has made enormous impacts to our planet that affect our well-being and even our survival as a species.

"The results are in and the reality of global warming is beyond dispute or debate. It’s not just an environmental issue. It affects ours public health and national security. It’s an urgent matter of survival for everyone on the planet — the most urgent threat facing humanity today. It’s going to take action from you and all of us working together. The world’s leading science journals report that glaciers are melting ten times faster than previously thought, that atmospheric greenhouse gases have reached levels not seen for millions of years, and that species are vanishing as a result of climate change. They also report of extreme weather events, long-term droughts, and rising sea levels.

"Fortunately, the science also tells us how we can begin to make significant repairs to try and reverse those impacts, but only through immediate action. That’s why we urge you to join us. The Stop Global Warming Virtual March is virtual but its purpose is real. By spreading the word and sharing this with others, our collective power will force governments, corporations, and politicians everywhere to pay attention."

In a 60-Minutes story about global warming, correspondent Scott Pelley said, "There is virtually no disagreement in the scientific community any longer about global warming," he says. "The science that has been done in the last three to five years has been conclusive. We talked to the chairman of the National Academy of Sciences, Ralph Cicerone, and Jim Hansen at NASA, who's considered the world's leading expert in climate change. The people in the story are well respected in the field. There's just no longer any credible evidence that suggests that, a, the earth is not warming or, b, that greenhouse gasses are not the cause. What you do see in the data again and again and again is this almost lockstep increase between the levels of CO2 and the rise of temperature in the atmosphere. And the climate models that predicted these things happening 15 years ago have proven to be accurate."

Why are most people in the dark about global warming or think that it is a myth? Plain and simple - we are being purposely deceived by oil, coal and auto industries and by the Bush administration. This isn't a political statement, just a fact. There is plenty of evidence to back it up. One of the very first campaign pledges that Bush broke was the promise to reduce carbon emissions. According the the National Environmental Trust, "in March 2001, Bush retreated from his campaign promise to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions - the primary cause of global warming - as part of an overall strategy for regulating four air pollutants emitted by power plants."

If we continue business as usual and we all don't do our part to reduce greenhouse emissions, the consequences of global warming will be catastrophic. How bad could it get?

How's this for an eye-opener? Sea levels will rise 20 feet and possibly much more, displacing millions of people and devastating wildlife. Because water expands when it warms, sea level rise projections are expected due to thermal expansion of sea water alone. Melting ice sheets would cause a significantly greater rise of sea level. According to NOAA, the effect of thermal expansion together with melted continental ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, the result could be a sea level rise of 7 and 73 meters (23 and 239 feet), respectively (IPCC, 1995). The Greenland ice sheet is melting three times faster today than it was five years ago, according to a recent study.

The Antarctic Peninsula 1986-2002, (c) University of Innsbruck. Source: European Space Agency

Additionally, according to the Sierra Club, "using satellite data, scientists have calculated that the Antarctic ice sheet is losing up to 36 cubic miles of ice each year. This comes as a surprise because the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had predicted that Antarctica would actually gain ice this century, through increased snowfall, as the climate warmed. "The total mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet is in significant decline," professor Isabella Velicogna told the Guardian newspaper. And lost ice from Antarctica translates into even greater sea-level rises than previously predicted."

See animations that show the flooding we can anticipate as global warming raises sea levels compounded with storm surges from stronger hurricanes. Ocean City Maryland completely disappears.

Other consequences of global warming include complete ecosystem disruptions due to unnatural season shifting causing mass species extinction, ocean acidification caused by human-made CO2 emissions would devastate corals and other marine life, extreme weather events including stronger hurricanes and tornados, severe drought and flooding, more diseases and health issues affecting millions of people, and severe food shortages. In short, it would be a nightmare beyond comprehension.

"If humans pursue a business-as-usual course for the first half of this century, I believe the collapse of civilization due to climate change becomes inevitable." ¹

"Given current trends, the consequences of inaction are all too clear. Under business-as-usual assumptions, the United States will consume 43 percent more oil and emit 42 percent more greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. At the global level, oil consumption and emissions will grow 57 and 55 percent respectively over the same timeframe and the Earth will be heading rapidly — perhaps inexorably — past a doubling and toward a tripling of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations."²

Of all of the disastrous hallmarks of the Bush presidency, Bush's darkest legacy in the long run may be his unmitigated assault on the environment and his deliberate campaign to cover up the immediate threat of global warming.

The Bush Administration has undermined the Environmental Protection Agency, appointed corporate cronies in the oil industry to critical environmental posts, and muzzled top scientists from warning the public about the imminent climate crisis. It was no exaggeration when Al Gore said "George W. Bush has by all odds been by far the worst president for the environment in the entire history of the United States of America -- bar none."

Leading advocate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has said, "You simply can't talk honestly about the environment today without criticizing this president. George W. Bush will go down as the worst environmental president in our nation's history."

Kennedy's book Crimes Against Nature details how Bush has rewritten the nation's environmental laws in favor of industry and filled the ranks of regulatory agencies with former lobbyists and corporate executives.

Bush rolled back laws (and stymied enforcement) on air pollution and standards for arsenic in drinking water. He pushed to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other federal lands to destructive drilling, promoted mountaintop removal coal mining, stepped up logging on public lands, slashed support for family planning around the world, fought against fuel economy and other efficiency standards and deliberately dragged his heels on the issue of climate change. The Bush administration has been accused of politicizing and distorting government science, particularly when it comes to global warming, and even floated a plan for corporate sponsorship of landmarks (sometimes referred to as the "Pepsi Grand Canyon" fiasco).

George W. Bush is well known for his deep ties to the oil industry, and under his leadership oil companies have enjoyed the highest profits in the history of the world, while consumers suffer sticker shock at the pump, not to mention a flagging economy and an unpopular war. Source: 9 U.S. Presidents with the Worst Environmental Records

The Bush administration has in the past refused to recognize that global warming exists (scientific facts can be such a nuisance when you're trying to make billions of dollars for your oil cronies). "President Bush has shown throughout his Presidency little inclination to address looming climate change. And he continues to incorrectly insist there is uncertainty regarding whether global warming is human caused - largely through burning of fossil fuels. Nonetheless, with perhaps only a decade left to fully implement in earnest the policies necessary to avert abrupt, run-away and potentially deadly climate change; his administration remains the greatest obstacle to a coordinated international policy response. The extent and rapidity of global warming is now so severe that we simply cannot wait for new American leadership." (full article)

As of today, there are before Bush leaves office. That's way too much time and way too much carbon being released into the atmosphere to wait to take action. In the United States alone, approximately 6.6 tons are emitted by the average person in a given year. About 82% of these emissions are from the burning of fossil fuels used to power our cars.¹⁰

"The U.S. remains the world’s biggest carbon dioxide emitter and an opponent of the Kyoto Protocol, which obligates endorsing countries to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The Bush administration can no longer claim that the jury is out on whether human activities are heating the planet. A government-sponsored study released in August 2005 supported the view that human action—from driving cars to operating power plants—is primarily responsible for global warming."⁵

President Bush only recently has acknowledged the link, mentioning global warming in his 2007 State of the Union address. It was the first time he has included climate change in the annual speech before Congress where he called for developing renewable and alternative fuels.

The problem may seem daunting to the average person who thinks they are powerless to do anything about it. But everyone can make a difference. Even small things can help, like using fluorescent bulbs to save electricity, burning less oil by changing our driving habits, driving a hybrid to get better gas mileage, buying energy-saving appliances, and investing in solar technology to heat hot water and generate electricity. The return on investment on many new technologies is becoming shorter as energy prices soar and the technology costs drop.

The most important thing we can do is speak up and let our government know that they need to take action now to develop plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by investing in clean alternative energy sources. Researchers from Princeton University identified 15 basic kinds of technologies that could run an electricity network of the extent, scale, and reliability of that we currently enjoy, while at the same time making deep cuts in carbon emissions.¹

We all need to take global warming seriously by considering how much we consume, how much electricity we use, what we drive, and especially who we vote for.

We need congressional leaders who will do what's right for the people they represent and not just vote party lines or side with big industry. We desperately need a president who has the intellectual capacity to grasp the magnitude of the global warming problem, challenge the oil, coal and automobile industries, stop wasting so much of our tax dollars on wasted efforts, and immediately start implementing solutions.

“We cannot come close to stabilizing temperatures” unless humans, by the end of the century, stop adding more CO2 to the atmosphere than it can absorb, said W. David Montgomery of Charles River Associates, a consulting group, “and that will be an economic impossibility without a major R.& D. investment.” A sustained push is needed not just to refine, test and deploy known low-carbon technologies, but also to find “energy technologies that don’t have a name yet,” said James A. Edmonds, a chief scientist at the Joint Global Change Research Institute of the University of Maryland and the Energy Department.

Think of the technological advancements we could have made with just a portion of the $300 billion that instead has been wasted on a senseless war in Iraq. Annual federal spending for all energy research and development — not just the research aimed at climate-friendly technologies — is less than half what it was a quarter-century ago. It has sunk to $3 billion a year in the current budget. That's one percent of what we've wasted so far in Iraq. The Bush administration's priorities are definitely out of touch with the real problems we are facing.

An assessment by the World Health Organization concluded that the effects of climate change since the mid-1970s likely caused more than 150,000 deaths in the year 2000. Other analyses estimate 160,000 deaths a year since then. In contrast, terrorism caused 56 American deaths in 2005, the same year we spent about $100 billion fighting it and its shadow oil war—even as these investments fantastically increased the real threats to our homeland security.

At the end of “An Inconvenient Truth,” former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary film on climate change, he concluded: “We already know everything we need to know to effectively address this problem. Existing technology is sufficient to start on the path to a stable climate.”

Martin I. Hoffert, an emeritus professor of physics at New York University, said that what was needed was for a leader to articulate the energy challenge as President John F. Kennedy made his case for the mission to the moon. President Kennedy said they were imperative, “not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

In an Op-Ed in the Washington Post (July 5, 2006) by Robert J. Samuelson, he says "The trouble with the global warming debate is that it has become a moral crusade when it's really an engineering problem. Only an aggressive research and development program might find ways of breaking our dependence on fossil fuels or dealing with it. Perhaps some system could purge the atmosphere of surplus greenhouse gases? The inconvenient truth is that if we don't solve the engineering problem, we're helpless."

So what can we do? We can take personal responsibility and reduce energy use. We can vote for leaders who take the problem seriously and who will create the incentives and allocate that funds for research and development to find the solutions.

Do we really want to leave this problem for the next generation to deal with? What are we going to say when they ask: What were you thinking? You knew about this and didn't do anything about it? Don't you care what kind of world you are leaving for your kids? One of the first things parents teach their kids is that there are consequences for their actions. Now it turns out that our kids are facing the consequences of our actions.

We can't wait for government to act. We can do it ourselves, and we can start now. See the What You Can Do section to find out how.

The harsh reality is we are all part of the problem until we make the effort to become part of the solution.