How loud does the alarm have to ring?
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After a brief holiday respite, it's time to ramp up activism in 2010. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has found climate change is "progressing faster than the worst-case scenario they had predicted" in 2007. As reported in the Times of India, the IPCC (made up of more than 2,500 scientists) has found, among other things, that:
- Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels in 2008 were 40 percent higher than in 1990.
- Over the past 25 years temperatures have increased at a rate of 0.19 degree Celsius per decade. The trend has continued over the last 10 years despite a decrease in radiation from the sun.
- Satellites show recent global average sea level rise (3.4 mm/year over the past 15 years) to be about 80 percent above IPCC predictions. This acceleration is consistent with a doubling in contribution from melting of glaciers, ice caps, and the Greenland and West-Antarctic ice sheets.
- New estimates of ocean heat uptake are 50 percent higher than previous calculations. Global ocean surface temperature reached the warmest ever recorded in June, July and August 2009.
- The contribution of glaciers and ice-caps to global sea level rise has increased from 0.8 mm per year in the 1990s to 1.2 mm per year today. The adjustment of glaciers and ice caps to present climate alone is expected to raise sea level by about 18 cm. Under warming conditions they may contribute as much as around 55 cm by 2100.
WATCH VIDEO: The 11th Hour (Movie Trailer)
Within this renewed sense of urgency, we can find the strength to re-imagine our way of life.
Welcome to 2010...Now Get to Work
- Make personal changes in the way you eat, commute, and perceive our culture
- Partake in boycotts to let polluting corporations know we've had enough
- Say no to war and war mongering
- Create community whenever and wherever you can
- Re-invent your activism
Alarming Links
Time is Running Out: We Need to Foster a Sense of Urgency
8 Practical Reasons Why Global Warming Totally Sucks, Plus What's in It For You to Stop it
