The Signs Are All Around Us -- But Will We Listen

If you care about the environment I encourage you to pick up a copy of the April 3rd issue of Time Magazine and read the article on global warning.

The magazine's cover boldly states "Global Warming: Be Worried. Be Very Worried".

Global warming isn't new news to anyone who's been watching the environment for the past 15 years. When Al Gore wrote his book "Earth in the Balance" many people snickered. Now after the recent tsunamis, hurricanes and cyclones many of those same snickerers are ready to take this issue seriously. Let us all pray that it is not to late to make a difference. plk


TIME Magazine -- Feeling The Heat
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1176980,00.html?internalid=AOT_h_03-26-2006_global_warming_

Summary:

Sunday, Mar. 26, 2006 Feeling The Heat

Global warming is already disrupting the biological world, pushing many species to the brink of extinction and turning others into runaway pests.

QUIVER TREE This striking giant aloe was given its name by the San people of southern Africa, who use the tree's hollow branches as quivers for their arrows.

PINON MOUSE This tiny resident of the southwestern U.S. has long eked out its living in juniper woodlands, but in California it is heading for higher, cooler altitudes in the High Sierra conifer forests.

BUTTERFLIES Researchers have documented shifts in the ranges of many butterflies. One study looked at 35 species of nonmigratory butterflies whose ranges extended from northern Africa to northern Europe. The scientists found that two-thirds of the species had shifted their home ranges northward by 20 to 150 miles. Though butterflies might be sturdier than they look, scientists believe many species will not survive the impact of climate change.

KING PROTEA It is the national flower of South Africa, just one among the many spectacular members of the large family of flowering plants named after Proteus, a Greek god capable of changing his shape at will. Scientists fear that more than a third of all Proteaceae species could disappear by 2050.

More than two-thirds of the 110 species of colorful harlequin frogs in Central and South America, two shown above, have also disappeared. Climate change seems to be making frogs more vulnerable to infection by the fungus.

What troubles scientists especially is that if we are only in the early stages of warming, all these lost and endangered animals might be just the first of many to go.

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Summarized by Copernic Summarizer