Climate_project

Jeff Green | Aug 14, 2008

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On August 7, a meeting concerning global warming was held at the Kennebec Community Centre. Heather B. O'Reilly, B.F.A. B.Ed, M.Ed, presented the lecture and showed aerial photos. All of the photos were taken by different astronauts over the years and what we saw was rather alarming.

CO2 levels that we send into space have increased dramatically since 1967, and glaciers are melting and receding to the point of near extinction. These glaciers provide a great deal of water to most of the world and the prediction is that if we continue on our perilous path, 50 years from now 40% of the world population will have a serious shortage of water due to global warming.

Ocean temperatures are rising, increasing the number and severity of hurricanes and typhoons. Flooding is ever increasing all over the world as the ice melts due to global warming. In the North Pole 9000 km of ice has now receded to 1000 km. Polar bears are drowning as their icebergs melt, unable to cope with the changing environment. And each day we spew 70 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, 25 million of which will wind up in the oceans. A scary thought!

Mount Kilimanjaro as well as the Alps show signs of receding snow. The Coral Reefs, which are known as the rainforests of the oceans, are bleached out, endangering the marine life. In some places, the ocean has risen 7 meters due to the melting ice and snow causing major calamities all over the world. According to Heather the root causes of all this are:

Each of us has the responsibility of making this happen. We need to be more efficient and we must also let the governing bodies know that they need to make changes regarding industrial policies.