Editor’s note: Please join us in welcoming Joshua S. Hill to the Green Options writing team. Based in Donvale, Australia, Joshua is a freelance writer who’s published articles on global warming/climate change at Mongabay.com, and the Canada Free Press. He’ll be contributing to our coverage of these issues, as well as delving into green technology.

It’s been two days since negotiators from 158 nations announced to the world from Vienna that they had "…reached broad agreement on the main issues." And though the agreement was nothing more than a possible plan for countries to enact, it was a step in the right direction, especially with the planned international climate summit to be held in Bali this December.

For a long time countries such as China, America, Canada and Russia have been hesitant to commit to clear cuts in carbon emissions. The loudest opponent of such cuts has been America, who until recently, has seemingly decided that being the bad guy in the global warming scenario was a favorable position to be in.

European countries – lead by Germany and Britain – have long been petitioning for a global commitment to cutting their emissions – the emissions that are believed to be the biggest contributor to the greenhouse gasses poisoning out atmosphere, and bringing our planet to its knees, so to speak.

And so, only a few days after this "broad agreement" was reached, British researchers have announced to the world that, if nothing is done soon to combat the rising temperatures, Africa will face a crisis that will pale the current hunger crisis, with an additional 70 million Africans at risk of hunger by 2080.

Having already suffered an increase of about 0.7 degrees Celsius during the last century, Africa is likely to be the worst hit over the coming century. "This is the continent that will come under the most severe pressure from climate change," said David King, the British government’s chief scientific adviser, in a presentation in Pretoria this past Wednesday. Gordon Conway, the chief scientific adviser for Britain’s department for international development, added to King’s sentiments, saying that "It’s going to get wetter and drier.”

The issue at hand is that the coastal regions of Africa are going to be at risk of major flooding, and the central regions at risk of worsening drought.

How is it then that, under the sheer weight of public opinion and scientific evidence – despite what critics like Alan Caruba say in naïve articles entitled "The Year the Global Warming Hoax Died" – the governments of such powerhouses as America and China still believe they can move through this continuing century as if there is nothing wrong?

It was only a couple of months ago that a report was released worldwide proving that the next century is going to be the most critical for our planet. The report was based on new computer models, tested on historical data gathered in the 1980’s, and proven to accurately predict the conditions that followed.

Governments and skeptics used this report – selecting paragraphs that proved their opinion, and leaving the rest behind – to further their scare tactics, though, saying that it was simply proof that we are in a natural increase of global temperatures. The report concluded that, while we are indeed reaching a point where the natural warming of our planet is growing, our own additions of carbon waste to the atmosphere have brought the change of climate to a point where it will increase over the next several decades beyond that which is naturally acceptable and common. It is up to us to make drastic changes over the next several years, to ensure that our planet is not a roiling ball of gas for our descendants.

Thankfully there is movement, and while it is minimal, it is a start. At the APEC summit being conducted in Sydney, Australia, political group GetUp have presented 18 cardboard boxes filled with a petition containing some 500,000 names. The petition – which contains some 91,000 Australian names – endorse the following message; "I want our governments to take sweeping action to dramatically cut greenhouse pollution, shift to clean energy and solve the climate crisis now."

Whether this will be even heard by the powerbrokers meeting in Sydney, or whether it will do any good, is a matter for another time, but the sheer weight of public opinion is growing to a point that soon the governments of the world will have no option but to act.

Or, at least, we can only hope that is true.

Reuters

AP

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