Notes From A Concerned Believer

Tankwoman says she's loving life today, and so, for most of the same reasons she states, often, am I. Until I take the time to really pay attention to the news. And then, on the welcome page of AOL, they post this AP article by Jan Olsen, Scientists Warn of Irreversible climate Shifts.
The link I just put in is to the AP article as posted on Newsvine, the AOL link may not hold for long; they change those welcome screen stories pretty often - but on AOL there are pictures and some additional information, so it's worth checking out. The story is about the report from the congress of leading international climate scientists who've been meeting in Copenhagen for the past three days in order to update the 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change before U.N. talks in December on a new global climate treaty.

The conclusions of this scientific congress will be presented to politicians when they meet in Copenhagen in December to discuss a new global agreement on greenhouse gas emissions to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Interestingly to me, the AOL posting of this news has with it one of their little voting polls, and in response to this question: How concerned are you about global warming?, 32% voted "Not at all." This would seem to fit in with another article I read this morning, from the AFP, noting the results of a Gallup survey taken this month, in which Americans polled rank global warming last out of eight environmental issues that respondents were asked to give a score to based on their level of concern about the topic.

The pollution of drinking water was deemed the greatest source of concern, with 84 percent of respondents saying it worried them. Other issues that were ranked -- and beat global warming by at least five percentage points -- were water pollution in general, toxic contamination of soil and water, fresh water supply, air pollution, loss of rain forests, and the extinction of plants and animals. (US Still Skeptical About Global Warming: Survey)

So, it would appear to me that where the scientists, the world leaders in government, and those of us who vote ourselves "Very concerned" about this advancing global crisis, have failed, is in effective efforts to make clear the interconnectedness of all things on this planet: water, soil, air, forests, animals and people, and the fact that the global climate shift is indeed detrimentally affecting every one of those elements. I'm baffled at seeing this shown so clearly in the results of this poll. Clearly people are worried about the important issues. Equally clearly, what the climate shift crisis actually is, and how it is affecting and will continue to affect their lives, has been very imperfectly explained and presented to the general public. The Copenhagen agreement will be a very important step in making the necessary planetary changes, and it is vital that this time the US is a functioning signatory of the agreement. A lot of general education needs to happen in order that our citizens understand the urgency of participating in "the societal transformation required to de-carbonize economies."

Technorati Tags: climate shifts, Copenhagen Conference, IPCC, global crisis, Gallup survey, heads in the sand

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