Facing the inconvenient truth
Earth Day 2010, which was celebrated worldwide last April 22, may have come and gone, but its theme, “Billion Acts of Green,” reminds us that everyone has to start adopting a more environmentally friendly lifestyle if we want to stem the tide of rising temperatures, melting polar ice caps and worsening natural disasters. There’s so much talk now about earthquakes in Yemen, Chile and the like, volcanic eruptions — Mayon in the Philippines and Eyjafjallajoekull in Iceland — and the most scorching-hot summers and bitter-cold winters we’ve had in years.
Yet the responsibility for solving the looming planetary climate crisis rests not only on individuals but also on the larger efforts of communities and leaders to initiate widespread change, a message espoused by the staging of the Leadership Conference Series 3, which will bring former United States vice president and environmentalist Al Gore to Manila.
To be held at the SMX Convention Center at Mall of Asia on June 8, 2010, Al Gore in Manila is the culmination of SM Prime Holdings’ green activities in celebration of World Environment Day. While the retail giant has embarked on numerous programs since 1992 to help manage consumption of power and energy, water and solid materials in its malls nationwide, more recently it has focused its efforts on raising the green consciousness of the public — something that the Nobel Laureate Gore has already done worldwide through his documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth.
A best-selling book that was also turned into an award-winning film that sounded the alarm on the planet’s climate crisis, An Inconvenient Truth tells of Gore’s long-time crusade to educate citizens about global warming. Beautiful — and sometimes dramatic — imagery is interspersed with stark facts and dire predictions of the future, in the hopes of rallying people to protect the earth before it’s too late. This was the film that brought the issue of climate change into the mainstream and one that has sparked continued discussion on man’s impact on the environment.
For those who have missed seeing this Academy Award-winning film, let me share with you the inconvenient but impossible to ignore facts revealed in the documentary. The numbers may have changed over the years as new studies emerge, but the fundamentals remain the same.
1. Data from Antarctic ice cores show that carbon dioxide concentrations are higher now than at any time during the past 650,000 years. And when there is more carbon dioxide, the temperature gets warmer because it traps more heat from the sun inside.
2. The 10 hottest years ever measured in our atmospheric record have all occurred in the last 14 years; the hottest was in 2005. Heat waves will also be more frequent and more intense as temperatures rise, resulting in negative effects for both people and habitats worldwide. A massive heat wave in Europe killed 35,000; that same year, India posted temperatures as high as 122 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. As ocean temperatures get warmer, hurricanes become more powerful. In 2005, the United States experienced an all-time record number of tornadoes, while Brazil experienced its first. That same year, the United States also experienced a string of strong hurricanes, including Katrina that devastated New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas and crossed southern Florida as a moderate Category 1 hurricane. However, the storm rapidly intensified after entering the Gulf of Mexico, growing from a Category 3 hurricane to a Category 5 hurricane in just nine hours.
4. Global warming also causes stronger storms; it causes more precipitation coming in one big storm event because the evaporation of the ocean puts all the moisture up there when storm conditions trigger the downpour, before it falls down. Yet paradoxically, while some areas will experience severe flooding, others will experience drought. One of the reasons for this has to do with the fact that global warming not only increases precipitation worldwide, but it also relocates the precipitation.
5. Starting in 1970, there was a precipitous drop in the amount and thickness of the arctic ice cap, diminishing by 40 percent in 40 years. Studies show that in the next 50 or 70 years, it might be completely gone. And as the sea ice continues to melt, available habitats for arctic animals like the polar bear will continue to shrink. One explanation for the rapid melting of the ice caps is that while the sun’s rays usually reflect off the ice and back into space, when it hits ocean water more than 90 percent is absorbed. As the surrounding water gets warmer, it speeds up the melting of the ice.
6. Global warming can also cause harm to different habitats, such as the bleaching of coral reefs, which can jeopardize the species that depend on them. Overall species loss is now occurring at a rate 1,000 times greater than the natural background rate.
7. The loss of ice in areas like Greenland and Antarctica could cause sea levels to rise by more than 20 feet (six meters), devastating low-lying areas like the Netherlands, the area around Shanghai, which is home to around 40 million people, Calcutta and, to the east, Bangladesh, home to 50 million people.
8. While each one of us is a cause of global warming, each of us can also make choices to change that with the things we buy, with the electricity we use, the cars we drive. We can make choices to bring our individual carbon emissions to zero. The solutions are in our hands. We just have to have the determination to make them happen. Increasing end-use efficiency, we can remove global warming pollution that would otherwise end up in the atmosphere like using more efficient electrical appliances, higher mileage cars and other more efficient transport, renewable technology, etc.
The facts may be alarming but the film ends with a message of hope and determination — that all of us, leaders and individuals, can take action to stop climate change. His recent book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, is an apt follow-up effort as it gathers insights from the world’s leading experts in fields as diverse as neuroscience, agriculture, economics and more, on the most effective solutions to the climate crisis.
And for those who want to know if you have been able to make a difference in the fight against climate change in the years since the film was released, part three of the Leadership Conference Series will have Gore present an updated version of An Inconvenient Truth, this time with a special focus on Asia.
To paraphrase one of Isaac Newton’s laws of motion, “Every environmentally-responsible action triggers an equal and opposite critical reaction.” Gore urges us to move from supporting tactical do-gooder deeds to embracing a comprehensive, strategic approach to doing good that starts with every individual, every leader, every community and every company. Let us heed the call to care for Mother Earth lest we get drowned, burned and scarred by her wrath.
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E-mail bongosorio@yahoo.com or bong_osorio@abs-cbn.com for comments, questions and suggestions. Thank you for communicating. For those interested to hear Al Gore in person, tickets to Leadership Conference Series 3 are available through TicketNet. For more info, call TicketNet at 911-5555 or e-mail algore-in-manila@smprime.com.
