Shouldn't
we be absolutely sure about global warming before building windmills
that kill birds?
Dear John,
Diet for a New America changed my life forever. I became
a vegan the second I picked up the book and saw pictures of the
animals. Then I read the area on health. Then I read the area on
world hunger and there was no turning back. My boyfriend, my brother,
my mom, and my sisters are now vegetarians because of me. I have
one concern about wind power though. The windmills will kill birds
and I certainly don't like that. Shouldn't we be absolutely sure
that there is such a thing as global warming before we take such
a huge leap? I am one who takes both sides of an argument very seriously
and I am not convinced (and I certainly don't want birds to be killed).
I'm looking forward to reading The Food Revolution. Perhaps
I will find info in the book about the subject.
Thanks,
Suzanne
Dear Suzanne,
Thanks for your letter, and for your concern for the welfare of
animals.
Actually, we are sure that there is such a thing as global warming.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was set up by the
World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment
Program in the early 1990s to ascertain what is certain, and what
is speculative, about climate change. The panel, made up of leading
climate scientists from 98 countries, studied the problem exhaustively
and issued a 1995 report warning the world that global warming is
an indisputable reality. The report did not have one or two lead
authors, as is usual for scientific papers, but 78 lead authors
and 400 contributing authors from 26 countries, whose work had been
reviewed by 500 additional scientists from 40 countries, and then
re-reviewed by 177 delegates representing every national academy
of science on Earth. The findings of the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change were unequivocal. There is simply no question
any longer. Our burning of fossil fuels is destabilizing the world's
climate and is likely to unleash devastating weather disturbances
and disasters. It is absolutely imperative that we cut carbon emissions
all over the world, but particularly in the industrial nations where
these emissions are the heaviest.
In 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published
a new report, revising its estimates. Global warming, they said,
was nearly twice as serious and dangerous as their own previous
calculations, done five years earlier, had indicated.
Why, then, does it seem as if there is still debate over whether
global warming is happening? The answer is that the coal and oil
companies don't like what is being learned, and are doing everything
they can to confuse things. There is an outstanding book by Ross
Gelbspan, The Heat Is On, that explores this issue.
Fortunately, windmills can be made so that birds are kept away from
the blades, with no decline in efficiency.
I am always grateful to people who consider the impact of human
technologies on our animal friends. Thank you for being one of these
people. Together we will create a more sustainable - and more compassionate
- world.
