'Less land due to global warming by 2020'

GENERAL SANTOS CITY , Philippines  — Only one-eighth of the earth’s surface will remain as dry land by 2020, unless governments worldwide succeeded in bringing down greenhouse gas emissions to 2 degrees Celsius by 2017, an environment science professor at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños said.

At present, one-fourth of the earth’s surface is land, while three-fourths is water but because of the worsening global warming brought about by the unabated gas emissions into the atmosphere, both the North and South Poles would melt and turn vast areas into a water world.

“With the world population projected to balloon from five to seven billion by then, there would be huge shortfalls in production, and supply may not be able to cope with ever increasing demand,” said Dr. Samuel Martin in a position paper, “The Consequences of Global Warming and Climate Change,” delivered on the second day of the Philippine Councilors League’ national conference at the Lagao Gymnasium last week.

Later, Martin told a press forum that scientists and educators attending the recently concluded Copenhagen Protocol on Global Warming and Climate Change were one in saying that at the rate toxic gases, particularly carbon dioxide, were being emitted into the atmosphere, a global meltdown at 4 degrees Celsius was imminent, and steps must be taken so that by 2020, the point of no return, global temperature was held down at 2 degrees Celsius.

He said the conference was supposed to have come up with a concerted scheme last month yet, but because of what he described as the apparent pussy-footing by the key players in attendance, the protocol came up short, and the deadline was moved to 2012.

“Sad to say, our world leaders could not seem to summon the political will to tackle the issue head-on, their equivocation driven no doubt by the reality that the twin problems of global warming and climate change are largely dictated by market forces of trade globalization,” he said.

Martin said local legislators could play a key role in addressing the problem at hand by coming up with concrete measures designed to protect the environment from crass commercialism and profit-driven endeavors disguised as earnest attempts at finding alternative sources of energy in the face of an impending power shortage.

“Coal fuel is one. No matter how you try to justify its use, it is inherently bad for the environment and must not be allowed,” he said.

For a regular coal-fired power plant, he said, millions of trees will be needed to serve as buffer to absorb carbon dioxide and prevent it from getting into the atmosphere where it is trapped, forming a warm blanket over the earth’s atmosphere.

“But this is next to impossible, for most of our forests are gone forever to logging, legal and illegal, and any claims to the contrary are all hot air and deception,” he added.