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Written by MyMelody

Category: About Us

Published: 01 November 2010

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Earth Security Advisory System - Current Threat Level

Severe Risk of Environmental Degradation!

The Terra Alert Security Advisory System is a means to disseminate information regarding the risk of threats to the environment, and all the citizens of the earth.

TerraAlert.com exists to get the word out to the people about the urgency of the many environmental dangers that threaten our livelihood, the barriers that stand in the way of impeding these dangers, as well as a discussion of solutions to the environmental difficulties that lie before us.

Perhaps one of the most imperative issues we at TerraAlert.com are concerned with is Global Warming.  It is well evidenced that Global Warming poses a myriad of risks, and the ever increasing amount of data makes it clear that this is a matter we can no longer afford to avoid.

What most of us already know about Global Warming lies in its impact on global temperatures and the environment, and these risks cannot be understated. The National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) tells us that "the earth could warm by an additional 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit during the 21st century if we fail to reduce emissions from burning fossil fuels, such as coal and oil."  They further warn that "this rise in average temperature will have far-reaching effects on the earth's climate patterns and on all living things."

NASA adds to this troubling news with cautions that the effects of Global Warming on the polar icecaps are beyond significant, considering they are "now melting at the alarming rate of nine percent per decade."  This stark reality is only bolstered when we compare these findings that of The National Snow and Ice Data Center:  "Arctic ice thickness has decreased 40 percent since the 1960s." They also caution that, "Over the past 3 decades, more than a million square miles of perennial sea ice -- an area the size of Norway, Denmark and Sweden combined -- has disappeared."

Sadly the effects of global climate change do not stop at melting icecaps and increased temperatures.  The  NRDC maintains that "a warmer atmosphere can hold -- and dump -- more moisture, contributing to more intense extreme weather events, which in turn put people's lives at risk." And that there is sufficient evidence to suggest that global warming may also lead to a rise in infectious disease , food, and water borne illness outbreaks.  And these are only a sample few of the problems that are sure to arise lest we do something to prevent them.

Scientists are clear about the many hazards to our planet and life on Earth, but some of us have yet to hear the alarm. Many of the changes required to promote a healthy globe will cause entrenched industries, like Oil and Coal, to change their ways and experience significant economic loss. Through influence over our elected officials and propaganda, these industries are fighting change at the expense of the rest of life on Earth.

Upton Sinclair once said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" One industry that best exemplifies this is ExxonMobil. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, ExxonMobil has been involved in the deliberate spread of misinformation in regards to climate change comparable to that of the Tobacco misinformation campaigns of the 1950s.

The Union unearthed a "1998 GCST task force memo [that] outlined an explicit strategy to invest millions of dollars to manufacture uncertainty on the issue of Global Warming—a strategy that directly emulated Big Tobacco’s disinformation campaign." Moreover, it has been made public that ExxonMobil paid lobbyists more than "$61 million between 1998 and 2005 to help gain access to key decision makers."  If this information is not enough to cause outrage, "between 1998 and 2005 (the most recent year for which company figures are publicly available), ExxonMobil has funneled approximately $16 million to carefully chosen organizations that promote disinformation on global warming." 

With such a deliberate campaign of misinformation, it is no wonder that the public at large knows very little about the in an outs of Climate Change. The largest gap is between "climate researchers most actively publishing in the field" and the general public. According A 2010 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States about " 97–98% of the climate researchers most actively publishing in the field support the tenets of ACC (Anthropogenic Climate Change) outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.^" Yet only 52% of Americans think most climate scientists agree that the Earth has been warming in recent years, and a mere  47% think climate scientists agree (i.e., that there is a scientific consensus) that human activities are a major cause."

The study concludes: " it seems that the debate on the authenticity of global warming and the role played by human activity is largely nonexistent among those who understand the nuances and scientific basis of long-term climate processes. The challenge, rather, appears to be how to effectively communicate this fact to policy makers and to a public that continues to mistakenly perceive debate among scientists."

We at TerraAlert.com are doing our part to close this divide by "sounding the Alarm." It's time we start paying attention to the health of the environment, which is intrinsically tied to the well being of it's inhabitants.

We invite you to join us in addressing the issue of Global Warming, as well as Mountaintop Removal, Deforestation, Clean Air & Rivers and Oceans, Sustainable Agriculture, Livestock, Building, Energy and Transportation, Conservation, Toxic Chemicals, Species, Extinction, Overpopulation to name a few.