To the editor,

            World War III is upon us, and we need to react accordingly.  This is a different kind of war.  We are collectively at war with our life support system and with future generations.  Scientists warn that our burning of the Earth’s carbon reserves (fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas), destroying old growth forests and the mass use of chemical fertilizers is increasing greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere as to create planetary devastation of a scale that the media and masses have yet to understand.

            If the people understood the unequivocal scientific proof that we are triggering abrupt climate change, threatening the lives of billions of people this century, they would be in the streets daily demanding passage of the Safe Climate Act now pending in Congress.  I implore people to go to web sites like ecoshock.org or loe.org and hear from the most credible scientists in the world the true threat that we face.

            We are passed what scientists call the tipping point that is lurching the planet toward a greenhouse state that has not been seen in 55 million years, when tropical conditions existed in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, and much of the planet was a desolate desert.  Tipping points can be thought of like a brick.  It was setting in a stable condition.  We have tipped the balance by increasing global temperatures that are setting off runaway greenhouse effects, called positive feedbacks by scientists, pushing our planet to a new state.  It is like tipping the brick until at some point, it will fall into a new position.

            The danger of climate change is not just a few degrees temperature rise.  The most plausible scenario of the course of our future, is for global devastation of a scale exponentially worse than all the world’s wars combined, with droughts, hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons, tornadoes, floods and the loss of snow melt water supplies for billions of people.  That is unless we stop emitting greenhouse gases.

            Media are too influenced by the coal, oil and auto industries, and are not giving adequate coverage to the crisis.  As a journalism graduate, I suggest that all media outlets begin a climate change section in daily broadcasts or publications, with front page placement.  This is unquestionably the most important issue of our day, and should be treated as such.

            Above all in this pivotal time, we must pass the Safe Climate Act now being considered by Congress.  While not nearly enough to be commensurate with the climate crisis, it is a critical first step to begin to reduce emissions, instead of increasing them as we are currently.  Ohio Senator George Voinovich and others who are opposing this sensible legislation are climate terrorists: threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of times more people than died in the attacks on September 11, 2001.

            Go to www.safeclimateact.org and ask your Senators and Representative to pass the Safe Climate Act, before it’s too late.

Chad Kister

Kister is the Author of Arctic Quest: Odyssey Through a Threatened Wilderness Area; Arctic Melting: How Climate Change is Destroying One of the World’s Largest Wilderness Areas and Against All Odds: The Struggle to Save The Ridges.  He is also the producer of the 2006 film, Caribou People.  The second edition of Arctic Melting is coming out this September, with 100+ more pages and thoroughly updated throughout.