March 28, 2000
Kamloops Daily News


It used to be a safe topic of conversation.  Now talk of the
weather is  ominous.  Our planet is heating up at an
alarming rate and no one seems to be able to do anything
about it. 						

Canadians might be tempted to feel good at the prospects of
a warmer climate, but there's more to global warming than
comfort.  The consequences of climatic change are more than
an adjustment of the thermostat.

We're already getting a preview of the effects of global
warming.  In B.C., the pine bark beetle is normally killed
off during the winter.  But for the last few warm winters,
it has survived, and is ready to devour stands of timber --
11,000 hectares in the Kamloops region alone.

Glacial scientist, Dr. Mindy Brugman, says the Athabasca
Glacier in Jasper National Park is shrinking at an alarming
rate, melting faster now than it has in the last 40 years. 
As the Columbia ice fields disappear so does a critical
water supply for several large prairie water systems. In a
hot dry summer like the summer of 1998, the glacier was the
only thing that kept the rivers flowing.  When the glaciers
are gone, the prairies will become permanently parched.

In Manitoba, winter temperatures are 4.4 degrees above
normal.  "When we see seasonal changes in the order of
magnitude of five degrees. That's a lot of change," says
John Parker of Environment Canada, "It means we're getting
weather that's normal a few hundred kilometres south of us."

The Canadian polar bear is slowly starving to death as our
arctic ice retreats.  Polar bears hunt from ice surfaces and
when the ice is gone, they have to live from stored fat. 
Last year, polar bears had to survive about a month longer
than ususal on stored reserves.  As summer fasting grows
longer, polar bears get weaker.

It's no secret what's causing global warming. Greenhouse
gases, carbon dioxide and methane, are trapping the sun's
heat.  These gases occur naturally. They contribute to the
finely tuned cycles of warming and cooling that have been
going on for millions of years.  The difference now is that
added greenhouse gases created by the burning of fossil
fuels threatens to tip that delicate balance. 

While the greenhouse gases that humans produce represent
only one-thirtieth of the total, that still amounts to 6
billion tonnes each year.  That relatively small addition is
accelerating global warming at an alarming rate.  Small
changes can have a proportionally large effect in climate. 
For example, as ice and snow melts, more and more of the
earth's dark surfaces and solar heating accelerates through
amplified feedback.

We have known about the problem for decades. In 1967,
Princeton meteorologists, Syukuro Manabe  and Richard
Wetherarld warned that human activity was increasing the
amount of carbon dioxide significantly.

So, who will do something about global warming?  Not
governments.  The governments of the World made a commitment
to reducing greenhouse gases in the 1997 Kyoto agreement.
Canada's commitment  was 6 per cent.  Not only is it
unlikely that we will meet our target, but an increase in
gases is probable.

The fossil fuel industry will not do anything.  They sell 1
trillion dollars worth in one day.  The automobile industry
won't.  They are busy selling gas-guzzling Sport Utility
Vehicles.  Not the consumer.  An increase in the cost of
fuel has generated a revolt across the land.  A cost
increase would reduce consumption and the resulting
greenhouse gases.  But we are hooked on cheap fossil fuels. 
Canadians consume one of the largest per-capita amounts of
fuel in the world. 

Incremental increases could be part of a strategy of
decreasing our dependance on fossil fuels and moving towards
alternate energy sources.  But the haphazard way in which
the petroleum industry is going about it is causing a
hardship.  Their motive is profit, not the good of the
world's citizens and climate.

Market forces and big business have resulted in the worst of
both worlds -- high cost of fuel and a climate that is
getting precipitously warmer.  After this, I find it hard to
understand how anyone can believe that the marketplace can
solve the big problems we face.

go back to my Columns in the