Our Stinkin' Mess

This week the UN approved the third and final installment of it’s report on global warming -- and it’s game over. The information is powerful and I won’t even try to put it better than the experts at The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I urge you to check it out. Also worthy is the UN Climate Change site.

"Only urgent, global action will do," said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, calling on the United States and China - the world's two biggest polluters - to do more to slow global climate change.

It’s no longer an option to look the other way. The US has, in essence, made a stinky, pewey diaper and the UN said PU. Now it’s time for us to reach for the diaper wipes and begin to clean up the mess we’ve spewed all over the world. Sitting back and pouting because the smaller countries haven’t taken measures is cause for a time out, at minimum.

Problem is, there is no more time. How about we demand that local and national governments act as the global role models. Mother Nature is not going to clean our diapers – we made the mess and we have to clean it up. We have to clean it up.

Here are couple key points taken from the IPCC report:

* Human activity is largely responsible for warming. Global emissions of greenhouse gases grew 70% from 1970 to 2004. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is far higher than the natural range over the last 650,000 years.

*Global warming is "unequivocal." Temperatures have risen 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 100 years. Eleven of the last 12 years are among the warmest since 1850. Sea levels have risen by an average of 0.07 inch per year since 1961.

Seriously, this is NOT about politics. This is NOT about taking sides. This is about life.