The environment is changing, and is doing so more rapidly than many scientists believed even a year ago. In his lecture "Building the Climate Movement," Bill McKibben stressed the massive warming effect that humans have had on the planet.
"We didn't realize we were that big, we were casting that kind of shadow," McKibben said. Fortunately, he said, hope still lies in taking immediate action and changing political policies.
In the past 20 years, the temperature of the Earth has risen from 59 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Although a temperature increase of one degree may seem insignificant, the consequences have been tremendous.
The warmer air, which retains more water vapor than the air of years past, has provided a more hospitable environment for mosquitoes and thus has led to an increase in mosquito-borne diseases across Asia and Latin America. Storms have increased in number and in magnitude, and glaciers in Greenland that are one-and-a-half miles thick are melting. Unless drastic action is taken, McKibben said humans will see a five-degree temperature increase and a 10- to 20-foot rise in sea level within the next century.
The current climate situation can be compared to "going to the doctor and being told that your cholesterol is too high," McKibben said. To remedy the situation, he suggested the immediate stoppage of production of coal-fueled power plants and the phasing out of any current ones.
Many of the changes that Earth is experiencing are due to the amount of the sun's energy that humans trap in the atmosphere. Reducing the amount of carbon emissions in the atmosphere to a target number of 350 parts per million will play a large role in slowing the snowballing effects of global warming.
Ecopledge, an environmental organization at Boston College, has picked up on the need to control waste production.
"The amount of trash on campus is ridiculous," said Merril Putnam, a leader of the campaigns committee for Ecopledge and A&S '08.
2008 Woodie Awards
