And if campaigns provide the chance to demonstrate leadership by bringing tough issues to the public, Gore so far has let the opportunity pass. It only depresses people. Obviously the problem of global warming has not vanished. The science continues to get clearer and more frightening. Right before Christmas, Peter Ewins, the chief executive officer of the UK Meteorological Office, and James Baker, the undersecretary in charge of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, issued a letter that contained a stern warning.
Recent data collected by both agencies, they said, confirm that our climate is now changing rapidly.
These new observations, when combined with our improving understanding of the climate system, increasingly point to human influences as the cause of these climate changes. This pair of scientists noted that the 1990s was the hottest decade of the last 1,000 years in the Northern Hemisphere. The rapid rate of warming since 1976, approximately 0.2 degrees C per decade, is consistent with the projected rate of warming based on human-induced effects. In fact, scientists now say that they cannot explain this unusual warmth without including the effects of human-generated greenhouse gases and aerosols. At the same time, because of our past and ongoing activities, we must start to learn to live with the likely consequences more extreme weather, rising sea levels, changing precipitation patterns, ecological and agricultural dislocations, and the increased spread of human disease.