Yes George, There Is Global Warming

By James Donahue

Aug. 30, 2005

Obviously manipulated by the powerful business and industrial leaders that bought him his presidency, George W. Bush has done everything possible to stall the world initiative to curb greenhouse gas emissions and put the brakes on runaway global warming.

This is not news. It is getting to be such an old story it sounds like a broken record to even write or say it. But Bush has been consistent in that he sidesteps the world movement to put costly controls on industrial smokestacks and automobile exhaust pipes in at least a token effort to stop the extreme polluting of the air we breathe.

Instead of taking the lead in what could have been a world movement to save our planet, Mr. Bush will go down in history of one of the worst environmental presidents to ever sit in the White House. And he is there at a time when the world really depended on something better . . . a president representing the needs of the world and not of big business.

Now we must pay severely for our misdeeds.

Hurricane Katrina was but a reminder of what is in store for not only the United States, but the world this year and the years to come. This powerful storm developed with unexpected abruptness just off the Florida coast and grew to extreme intensity after sweeping the tip of the Florida peninsula.

Weather specialists say the formula is right for many more such storms to follow. And the evidence is there to prove them right.

Right behind Katrina are tropical depressions numbers 13 and 14, one still east of the Lesser Antilles and the other just off the African coast. The next storms will be named Lee, Maria and Nate. After that will be Ophelia, Philippe and Rita. Which of these storms will rake America as did Katrina? How many lives and how many billions of dollars in damage will the nation experience before the hurricane season ends? And how much worse will 2006 be?

In the Pacific Northwest two typhoons are even now churning west toward the Asian coast. They are Nabi, now about 200 miles East of Saipan, and Talim, about 430 miles southeast of Taiwan.

The entire world is experiencing extreme weather this month. Searing heat and drought have ravaged southern Europe and North Africa with wildfires burning out of control across Portugal.

Extreme floods on the other hand have struck central Switzerland, causing landslides and cutting off roads and railroads.

A severe drought continues this year across the Midwest United States now turning parts of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers into sandbars. Barges normally carrying petroleum products, coal, chemicals, agricultural goods and road-paving materials are unable to traverse the rivers without going aground. Crops, especially corn and wheat, are being hit hard this year in this area.

Intense heat in Southern California last week taxed the power system to a point where that area of the state experienced rolling blackouts and complete disruption of service for a while. Over 500,000 electric customers were affected.

Temperatures in Fairbanks, Alaska, topped the mid-80s Fahrenheit and sometimes rose to over 90 degrees this month, something almost unheard of that far north. The heat is melting glaciers and turning the permafrost across the northern tundra into muck. Scientists say between 1949 and 2002 the average air temperature in Alaska has increased by 3.3 degrees Fahrenheit

While all of the signs of global disaster are clearly visible, American industry continues to spew its foul soot and smog into the atmosphere, we continue driving our automobiles instead of seeking alternative ways to travel, and our government refuses to recognize that we even have a problem.

If we don’t do something very soon, the consequences will be chilling for all concerned.