2008 Woodie Awards
Global warming: A world in need of understanding
Joe Beninati
Issue date: 11/1/07 Section: Op/Ed
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Global Warming: an idea that dominates the minds of environmental activists that is on the priority list for all politicians and that is on the list of concerns for the entire world populace. We are told to change our light bulbs and any home appliance to earth friendly ones. Corporations around the world are doubling their efforts to create products that are friendly to the environment. Now, this is great and we need to keep doing this to create better air for us to breathe and create a better standard of living; but it does seem very arrogant to think that these past few years of trying to better the environment can reverse hundreds of years of industrialization and putting pollutants into the air and ozone. To say the effects of global warming are unavoidable is certainly news many people would not like to hear, but prominent scientists, including James Lovelock, believe that global warming is inevitable. These scientists believe the human race is on the brink of destruction and by the end of the century the 6.6 billion world population will be decimated to just over 500 million. Extreme weather conditions have already been documented: the freak tsunami, flooding and wildfires. Lovelock believes these will continue along with food shortages. These food shortages and dramatic weather will drive various populations from their natural borders into other territories, which raises tensions that spark violence. The violence will ignite intense wars in the midst of severe weather and food shortages, all resulting in almost 6 billion people dying. Lovelock states, "you could look at climate change as a response of the system to get rid of an irritating species: us humans." Much like dinosaurs, the other dominant species that once roamed the planet, humans will have to endure dramatic changes to climate and our habitat. But unlike the dinosaurs, humans have the means to survive such a catastrophic event. We have the intelligence, now we need the understanding between nations. We need peoples across the world to be accepting in dire times and put the fate of humankind above the self interests of their nation.