This was brought up in a round about way on the General Topics "Election" forum and as luck would have it the concern for Global Warming was a hot topic on CNN today. The article is linked below.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/11/02...reut/index.html Thanks for making some noise about this, Julie. As you might have guessed, I'm looking for a job in the environmental science department at NUMA. It doesn't have to be just about shipwrecks, right?
On this topic, I read an interesting survey recently. It was a study conducted in 1990 by the EPA, comparing what scientists think are the greatest environmental risks with what citizens think.
The four items listed as High Risk Ecological Problems by scientists (in no particular order) 1. Global Climate Change 2. Statospheric Ozone Depletion
3. Wildlife Habitat alteration and destruction 4. Species extinction and loss of biodiversity.
Citizens ranked Ozone depletion as a High Risk, but Global Climate Change came in as a low risk problem, equivalent with pesticide residue in food. The other two items didn't even rate.
There is a gulf between the reality of our environmental condition and what most people think the situation is. I for one would like to thank Dr. Cussler for using his novels to draw our attention, if in a somewhat exaggerated way, to some very real problems. The water crisis in Blue Gold is real, and not getting any better. The ocean currents that caused the hurricane in Trojan Odyssey exemplify the same phenomenon that contributed to one of the most catastrophic hurricane seasons on record. Fish farming (White Death) has led to high-toxicity levels in salmon, while at the same time fooling us into thinking that these species will be safe from exinticion; in fact, the hatchery system guarantees a loss of genetic biodiversity which is a precursor to extinction.
There aren't easy solutions to any of these problems, but putting them in the bottom drawer is not going to postpone the due date.