Diane Feinstein is Very Worried About Global Warming

In the speech by Diane Feinstein a United States Senator from California, she talks about how global warming is the single greatest environmental threat facing the planet. The Earth's temperature has climbed to its highest point in the past twelve thousand years. Feinstein talks about needing to keep the temperature increase down that we can not continue our "business as usual" attitude or else we will face a catastrophe.

Why has this happened to us, because we are addicted to fossil fuels. It explains how carbon dioxide does not dissipate in the atmosphere and carbon dioxide produced of the last sixty years is still in the atmosphere and will be there through the year two thousand and fifty. This will lead to serious environmental consequences. Leading scientists feel we need a seventy percent reduction in the carbon dioxide levels below nineteen ninety and we need to do it by two thousand fifty.

Some of the effects of global warming have been oceans rising, glaciers melting and extreme weather patterns have emerged. We have had more heat waves, droughts, hurricanes and floods. Hurricanes have doubled in size since the 1970s, Katrina is an example. Again if we continue our "business as usual" the planet will change forever.

Some people believe that the planet will not change and that it will survive. Millions of years ago there was only one land mass and through natural global warming land masses moved and became the continents. We have accelerated the warming process and sea levels have risen causing catastrophic flooding. In Los Angles temperatures have spiked over one hundred degrees. The Los Angeles area is especially vulnerable to catastrophic flooding. The United States has four percent of the world's population but uses twenty five percent of the world's energy. The largest contribution to global warming is electricity generation followed by transportation and in the United States these two factors combine to approximately sixty percent of the global warming problem. Industry contributes as well; we can not continue our "business as usual" attitude.

What can be done, electricity generation is responsible for thirty - three percent of the global warming gases in our country. The biggest problem is pulverized coal. We need to find a way to clean up coal. Feinstein believes that the government needs to get involved by capping the amount of global warming gases being released into the atmosphere. The government would establish credits or allowances for industries that reduce their emissions below the target cap. Farmers and growers would receive credits for moving to greener farming practices. We need to get technologies moving to help create cleaner energy and we need to create incentives to do that.

Transportation represents twenty eight percent of the carbon dioxide emissions. Passenger vehicles alone represent twenty percent of all United States emissions. We need to reduce these emissions. We need to improve fuel efficiency of these vehicles and move away from oil and gasoline based fuels. Technologies do exist to help us do this but the auto industry is refusing to utilize them probably because of the high cost. Again Senator Feinstein believes the government needs to get involved by introducing a bill that would require mileage of these vehicles to increase from twenty five to thirty five miles per gallon over the next ten years.

There is available venture capital funding to invest in clean energy projects. Fuel cells are a creative invention that could be used to power homes in the future. Bill Gates is joining Vinod Khosla to spearhead investment efforts in ethanol. Other ideas are inexpensive solar panels and wind mills. Chevron has formed a strategic alliance with a Colorado firm to advance development of bio - fuels. All these efforts are not "business as usual". In addition, America needs to be more energy efficient. Everyone can and needs to make a difference; this means car pooling, energy efficient light bulbs and increased use of energy star products for all our needs. In two thousand five energy star products saved consumers twelve billion dollars and reduced emissions by five percent. The United States cannot do this alone. We must join with the European Union and other nations in reducing emissions. We can not have our head in the sand. We need to be a leader; China's coal use is soon to be greater than the United Sates. If China continues its course unabated, carbon dioxide levels will quadruple. The bottom line is we cannot continue "business as usual" we need to let the members of the House and Senate now that we need action.