Gelbspan heats up presentation

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ross Gelbspan spoke about climate change and its effects locally and nationally to a roomful of attendees Monday evening in Smith Center ballroom.

Gelbspan said that climate change is not going away. He provided an overview of the climate situation based on scientific findings. According to the findings, we are experiencing a great amount of inertia, reversing the carbon cycle by 400,000 years, heating the ocean and altering the timing of the seasons.

On his book tour to foreign countries, Gelbspan said he was astonished no delegate questioned the science on climate change.

“What is most striking is there is no debate in virtually any other country in the world about what is happening to the climate,” Gelbspan said. “Virtually, all the debate is on the policy side, how we make an energy transition in a way that is less economically destructive.”

Scientists have determined that the ’90s were the hottest decade of the last milleninum. Climate warming is happening 50 percent faster than anticipated. Last month, scientists found carbon dioxide leakage in space, according to Gelbspan.Right now, the sea level is rising, more plants are annihilated due to severe weather conditions and glaciers are thawing.

The biggest glacier on the planet is losing three cubic miles of ice per year, enough to cover the state of Maryland.

Unless actions are taken, humans will face and continue to see dramatic changes in weather and other consequences.

Some of the consequences of climate change include extreme weather conditions such as droughts, heatwaves, severe storms and health problems, including more heat-related deaths and diseases spread from high reproduction rates of insects.Gelbspan said malaria cases have quadrupled in the last five years.

“To restore our climate to a stable state, ultimately requires nothing less than rewiring the entire globe – replacing any coal burning furnace of the coal generating plant, of the gasoline burning tower with low carbon hydrate efficiency and renewable energy sources,” Gelbspan said.

Renewable energy includes fuel cells, solar system and wind farms. Gelbspan said that by rewiring the globe, the creation of millions of jobs would flourish, especially in developing countries.

Some of the solutions Gelbspan suggested were to establish large funds, impose tax on international currency transactions and transfer the $20 million a year subsidy the federal government spends on fossil fuel.

“Today as we enter the 21st century, we are no longer children. Somewhere in the recent past, with the growth of population, and the power of our technology, we have collectively become as powerful as any force of nature. And as we continue to deny that newfound power and act like adolescents, we are putting our entire history at risk,” he said.

To learn more about climate change, log on to www.greenhousenet.org.