NEW FEATURE: Page Three
I have a new feature to the blog starting today. It's called Page Three. Page Three of the newspaper has always been the most interesting part of a daily newspaper for me. That page often features news that most often needs a little 'zing' to get front page space. Sometimes it's interesting discoveries or findings in science and medicine. Other times page three has important reports or incidents that may impact our daily lives. Often what begins on page three will later down the road find itself on the front page, much like Pluto losing its planet status, or former Senator Tom Delay being indicted and stepping down. I'm going to try to do this Page Three feature daily (except weekends) in addition to my somewhat infrequent other postings.
Here is today’s Page 3 article that caught my eye:
Climbing temps affect flora, fauna
"WASHINGTON - The planet's temperature has climbed to levels not seen in thousands of years, warming that has begun to affect plants and animals, researchers report in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
The article goes on to say that the Earth’s climate is the warmest it's ever been since the ice age, and over 1,700 plant, animal, and insects are moving "poleward at an average of about 4 miles per decade."
My local paper didn't have the following paragraph in its edition, probably so that they had space for the quarter page ad, but it's one of the most frightening parts of the article:
"If further global warming reaches 2 or 3 degrees Celsius, we will likely see changes that make Earth a different planet than the one we know. The last time it was that warm was in the middle Pliocene, about 3 million years ago, when sea level was estimated to have been about 25 meters (80 feet) higher than today," Hansen said."
Global Warming doesn't have the human drama like political strife, war causalities, or interest stories, but it's a global crisis that may cause cataclysmic damage in our lifetimes. It not only will take personal responsibility to try to affect change, but it also needs the political and economic willpower of government and business. Here's hoping that the elections in November will begin the first earnest steps towards a real global war worth fighting, man-made pollution.
Comments
Do you know when we'll REALLY deal with global warming? When people are actually verifiably dying from it, or when the beachfront property in tony neighborhoods actually do disappear, by which time it'll be too late.
Posted by: ROG | September 27, 2006 10:52 AM
Well Roger this summer we had over 100 people die from the heat in California. I think we'll see more results when land start dissapearing...of course THEN it'll be too little too late.
We need a J.F.K. or other leader that will help supply a vision to transform our way of life and our economy to dream big and change the state of things. I think we're starting to take the real baby steps with Al Gore's film, and with Clinton's recent Initiative...but we need someone "from across the aisle" so to speak to have that same passion.
Posted by: Chris "Lefty" Brown | September 27, 2006 12:07 PM