Climate Change - Don't Mess With Mother Nature
The title above seemed appropriate. In fact, we've been messing with Mother Nature far too long and we're now seeing some of the consequences.
Just a few examples of this are: a series of freak storms including one that wiped out Stanley Park in Vancouver; and British Columbia's forests being destroyed by pine beetles that have survived a mild winter.
So, what's to be done?
Canada's opposition parties insist Canada must get on board with Kyoto. The Liberal leader even went so far as to name his dog Kyoto - don't know if that will help, but I guess it lets him sleep nights.
Prime Minister Harper insists
'there is no quick fix' to climate change.
Climate change is an "enormous" problem, but it's "fantasy" to think greenhouse-gas emissions can be cut overnight, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said after a UN report concluded global warming is very likely man-made.
Harper's Environment Minister
John Baird said, "The time for talking about this and studying it in Canada is over. We have to get acting", adding he would soon be meeting with other world ministers in Paris to discuss how Canada 'can play catch-up' in reducing emissions.
Meanwhile
ABC News points out that the United States, China and India were not participants in the recent
Paris Conference
- the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. A meeting is scheduled to follow this spring in Morocco where strategies will be discussed.
A story from The Guardian titled
'Why the news about warming is worse than we thought' says in part:
Predictions by international scientists that global warming will lead to a sharper rise in temperatures than previously thought made sobering reading yesterday. But what is the major factor that has driven their gloomy conclusion?
Dramatic flips in the way ecosystems absorb carbon dioxide will see oceans and vast swaths of land falter in their ability to draw up the greenhouse gas, allowing it to build up in the atmosphere and cause more warming. The phenomenon is known as a positive feedback - where global warming drives changes in ecosystems that themselves cause more heating.
The warning came in a major report on climate change published yesterday that suggests average temperatures could rise more than expected - by as much as 6.4C by 2100, unless greenhouse gas emissions are reined in. The report, from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has upgraded its 2001 estimate that temperatures would rise by at most 5.8C, because at the time the feedback mechanisms were either unknown or poorly understood.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon said on Friday that the world should respond quickly and decisively towards the climate change.
Blog MyyyyyAsssss readers here in Canada should be concerned as it is expected countries as far north as Canada are expected to get a double dose of 'climate change' as compared to those geographically south of us.
So if you value your toque, your outdoor hockey rinks and your ability to run a snowblower for months on end - you better get involved as we could become another Florida or Bermuda. Ah .......no, scratch that thought.
