Climate Change
The time to react is now.
The earth is experiencing a significant climate change. The warmest years on record are from 2001 to 2006. On February 13, 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control ("IPCC") consisting of hundreds of scientists from 113 nations issued a report indicating that there is a 90% certainty that man is responsible for the climate's temperature increase.
The United States, on a federal and state level, is passing laws to curtail the release of greenhouse gases from the generation of electricity. A majority of utility companies are already taking steps to purchase and sell renewable energy. The problem facing US utility companies is that the overall source of renewable resources is not adequate for demand.
The United States can make a difference.
The Energy Information Administration of the US Government reported that the United States, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Canada were the world's five largest producers of energy in 2004, supplying 49.8 percent of the world's total energy. (EIA May-July 2006).
The United States led the world in geothermal, solar, wind, wood and waste electric power generation in 2004 with 97 billion kilowatt hours. (EIA May-July 2006). As the leading producer of carbon dioxide emissions, the United States must continue to make significant progress by developing more renewable wind energy and begin to reduce the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere, having a profound positive impact on climate change.
The science and impact from climate change is real.
The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that global temperatures will rise an additional 3 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit by century's end. In 2004, more than 27 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases were released into the earth's atmosphere. The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions must take place to prevent this forecasted rise in temperature.
The US Army Corps of Engineers' Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory is in the process of developing a shoreline protection system for the Arctic which until today was unnecessary. As the seasons become warmer, in places like Barrow, Alaska, Arctic ice is melting more than any other period in our history.
Arctic sea ice is something the National Snow and Ice Data Center ("NSIDC") in Colorado watches carefully, especially because of its effect on global climate. Arctic ice has been in steady decline since 1979. This ice helps regulate the climate because it acts like a mirror, deflecting incoming solar energy and helping to balance the Earth's temperatures. As the ice disappears, dark ocean water is exposed to the sun's energy, and the Arctic's ability to cool our planet also disappears.
