Report on Global Warming Looks Ominous

A common sight for many people is the gruff looking homeless man holding a large cardboard sign proclaiming that "The end is near". This ominous figure has become a part of pop culture in the US and makes appearances in movies such as Armageddon and The Stand. We laugh and shake our heads at this gloom and doom figure, but perhaps he is right after all.

According to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meeting in Paris global warming not only has begun but is also unstoppable for centuries. The 20-page report places the blame on the shoulders of mankind, stating that they 90 percent certain that this change was caused by pollution generated by humans. The panel predicted that by 2100 there would be an increase in global temperatures of 2-11.5 degrees Fahrenheit and a rise in sea level by 7-23 inches. This is a dramatic increase from the previous predictions that the panel gave in 2001. The panel also warns that this will result in stronger, and more deadly, hurricanes.

Even with the strongly worded report and the threats that what has begun is not unstoppable no policy changes are expected to happen in the US. Though President Bush and his administration recognize that global warming is man-made and real, Bush still opposes bills such as the Kyoto Protocol that calls for a cut in greenhouse gas emissions. In fact The United States is one of only a handful of countries, such as China and India, who are not members of the Kyoto Protocol. President Bush opposes mandatory limits on the heat-trapping greenhouse-gas emissions, though he has made clear that he hopes to lower the US's emissions. John Reilly, associate director of research at the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, stated that "saying that climate change is almost certainly occurring and it's almost certainly due to human activity is different than saying the impact of climate change is so bad that we need to do something right away."

Some fear that this latest report will actually have a negative effect on how people look at global warming and reducing pollution. Many feel that if global warming is seen as unstoppable that there is so reason to continue to work towards helping the environment. It can begin to snowball into an "Armageddon effect" where in people see no reason to stop what they are doing, or worse where in people begin to destroy and pollute more than before in order to get as much short term gain as possible. It could be like looting on a global scale. However Achim Steiner, the executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, urges people not to let this happen.

Many people are hoping that this report will raise even more awareness of the predicament that is happening. Currently there is a national goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 18 percent by 2012, but many scientists are hoping that the warnings issued in the report will urge the US and the world on to greater changes in how we affect the global crisis.