Centaurus Technologies and Innovations, Inc

Climate Crisis: Danger and Opportunity
Al Gore. Norman, Oklahoma
March 1, 2007

New Al Gore, vibrant, active, with few jokes to spare, asked a helper to take the chair off the podium, asked to dim the lights so people could see three gigantic screens better. It was dark for New Al Gore to see his notes, but he needed none. New Al Gore was ready to act! And the topic he covered required action. You could not sit and read, and address the Climate Crisis. This is the crisis, which puts the very survivability of humankind at risk.

Al Gore started with a reference for the word “crisis” in Chinese and Japanese. He said that hieroglyphs representing this word carry two meanings. One hieroglyph means “danger”, and the other one means “opportunity”. Al Gore's presentation was built around understanding that each crisis presents both dangers and opportunities.

Danger

The science of global warming has led to a unanimous agreement among scientists around the World. Certain groups along with federal government officials have artificially created the perceptions of controversy. The numbers and publications Al Gore referenced time after time proved consensus among scientists regarding global warming. He mentioned a recent study of over 900 publications on global warming in scientific peer reviewed journals. That study found all publications supported the idea that people have significant influence on global climate and that many changes can be only explained if humans are taken into account. At the same time, over 50 percent of Americans polled had doubts about global warming, viewed the issue controversial and were skeptical about humankind’s impact.

Al Gore used materials from his Oscar winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” and from his book with the same title. He also presented updated information with some numbers reflecting state of affairs as of December of 2006.

One of Apollo missions took the most famous picture of our planet, lit by the Sun and seen from near the Moon. A small blue planet! One of Galileo satellites took a picture of the Earth from outskirts of our Solar System. A tiny spec in a vast darkness! All the wars, all the love, hate, marvelous buildings, great art, success and failures – all of these happened and keep happening on this small spec of light.

Every day, every 24 hours, we throw over 70 million tons of pollutants into the atmosphere. That thin layer of air and ozone, which makes all life possible, can absorb a lot. However, at some point changes start being noticeable. Ice sheets melt in both Arctic and Antarctica. Snow tops of mountains lay bare. Animal life has to adapt to new reality of early seasons, changing rain patterns and increasingly different food supply. Al Gore stated the numbers scientists found not too long ago about the growing rates of extinction of animal life. While there are natural cycles of climate change ranging anywhere from 21,000 years to 100,000 years, dramatic changes of our times are much more significant and go way off any chart. CO2 levels, especially in industrial countries are substantially higher than historical range of data.

Basic physics of heat and moisture transfer, of interaction between Earth and Sun, combined with our intensive pollution creates positive feedback systems in places like Tundra and on glaciers. Positive feedback systems accelerate rates of warming through a simple set of steps. Snow and ice reflect much of Sun’s energy. This allows for soil, permafrost and other surfaces to stay cold. Once snow and ice melt, darker colored and more absorbent surfaces get exposed. Absorbing solar heat, soil, permafrost and other surfaces warm their environments. This in turn allows for more snow and ice to melt. Similar set of events happens on floating ice of Arctic and Antarctica. Water absorbs heat and allows for more ice to melt. Last two years were the first years when drowned polar bears were found. They drowned because of the distances they had to swim between sheets of ice while hunting.

One after another, Al Gore showed devastating effects of recent changes on nature.

The fate of humankind presents a whole different set of challenges when it comes to global warming. Environmental refugees – a term coined not too long ago – describes in its simplicity a possible fate of tens of millions of people. Historically humans settled in low laying areas close to the seas, lakes and rivers. Many areas need only 5-8 feet increase in sea level to affect tens of millions of people. Places like New Orleans, Holland, Belgium, parts of China and many others already rely on a system of dams and levies to keep areas lying below sea level dry. We all saw the devastation caused by Katrina in New Orleans. Computer models showed similar levels of devastation for places like Shanghai, New York, Los Angeles, many Indian, Indonesian and Persian Gulf areas. Tens, potentially hundreds of millions of people will be affected. Countries like Holland, Belgium and Italy will have to build higher levies, stronger dams to protect historic areas. With sea levels rising Holland and Belgium may lose over half of their land mass.

Al Gore stated three main factors of collision between Earth and Humankind:

1. Population. Exponential growth of population requires ever more resources and produces ever more waste. Water demand alone devastates vast areas, like Aral Sea, which basically does not exist any more.

2. Scientific and Technological development. Whether resource extraction or fighting a war, human impact is growing in its intensity. For thousands of years humans had shovels and spears, and the impact was very limited. An individual could do so much damage before reaching his or her physical limits. With giant 80 ton open pit digging equipment, nuclear and chemical weapons, one individual can cause unimaginable levels of devastation.

3. Our Way of Thinking. Humans always looked at Nature as their workshop. We were given this place and we will make use of it to fit our needs.

Opportunity

Each of the set of problems stated earlier creates a whole new set of opportunities. Decisions we make now will affect generations to come. We have a responsibility to take measures now.

Two main notions limit our efforts. One notion is that an individual is helpless when it comes to Global Warming. What can be done? Quite the contrary, individual efforts can have great impact if multiplied by millions of people. Governments can affect pollution levels through regulations.

Another notion is that it is too late to do anything, that Global Warming and pollution reached irreversible levels. Wrong again! When a hole in ozone layer was discovered, quick coordinated action of almost all of the countries led to new standards, prohibiting use of materials destroying ozone. Concerted effort helped our planet to patch up that hole.

Al Gore embraced a concept of Good Steward. The concept’s basic premise is that God gave us this planet and we have a responsibility to take good care of it.

And the last but not least essential element needed for securing the future for generations to come is political will. There has to be political will to take action, to quit the state of denial and start making meaningful changes to our way of thinking and living. And as Al Gore said, political will is indeed a renewable resource, and we need to make good use of it.

Temur Akhmedov