As a crucial climate change conference nears, more evidence of a rapidly warming globe

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*Perilous Times and Global Warming

As a crucial climate change conference nears, more evidence of a rapidly
warming globe*

HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Nov. 23, 2009, 9:29PM


As world governments prepare for a pivotal conference in Copenhagen next
month to map future strategy to contain global warming, and the U.S.
Congress debates legislation to reduce carbon emissions, evidence
continues to accumulate that the threat is accelerating.

A new study by a team of British scientists indicates that man-made
carbon emissions continue to increase despite the global recession.
While emissions in the United States fell by 3 percent last year, they
jumped 2 percent worldwide, most of the increase coming from China. The
U.S. and China are the world's largest carbon emitters.

Equally ominous, the planet's oceans are steadily losing capacity to
absorb the greenhouse gases that trap heat and fuel global warming.

The Global Carbon Project study concludes that unless emissions are
substantially reduced, the result would be a rise in average global
temperature by nearly 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century.
That is on par with previous worst-case scenarios outlined by the United
Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Scientists have
estimated that temperature spikes above 2 degrees could have disastrous
consequences, including large rises in sea level, droughts and stronger
storms.

One of the authors of the study, Professor Corinne Le Quere of the
University of East Anglia, says the conclusions raise the stakes for
delegates to the Copenhagen gathering, who will try to hammer out a
successor to the Kyoto Accords that committed signatory governments to
emission reduction goals. The United States did not sign on to that
agreement.

In another indication that global warming is accelerating, record
minimum sea ice in the Arctic was reported last month. The Catlin Arctic
Survey estimates that based on the dwindling expanse and thickness of
ice coverage, the Arctic Ocean will become ice free in summer within two
decades.

The latest developments should raise the political heat in Washington to
produce workable legislation to reduce carbon emissions while propelling
the U.S. into a leadership role in crafting an international agreement
to limit climate change.