The title of this article is somewhat of a misnomer. Yes, climate change is unavoidable; our world is warming, and millions of global citizens are feeling the direct effects of this widespread phenomenon. Perhaps a more relevant question would be, "What is causing the world to warm, and can we do anything to alleviate it?"

The term "climate change" is favored by the G.W. Bush administration because it cleverly avoids the implication that our changing climate is brought about by man-made global warming. Yet in a recent speech, President G.W. Bush did in fact link human activity with our current warming trend when on July 10, 2007 he opined, "And there's an environmental cost for being dependent on oil. When we're burning carbon, it creates greenhouse gasses, which is an issue that we need to deal with."(1) Mr. Bush's statement was undeniably a tacit admission that man-made global warming is not only unavoidable, it's happening as we speak.

Recently I previewed the provocative anti-global warming documentary, "The Great Global Warming Swindle" which was essentially launched as an effort to counter former U.S. Vice President Al Gore's wildly popular, "An Inconvenient Truth." Gore's truth on the matter of global warming must have struck a nerve with the anti-regulatory, pro-business sector who views any talk of global warming as a threat to their business practices. But even before Gore's documentary, the energy industry had been sending its top lobbyists to pressure conservative Republican Congressional Representatives with constituents in energy-producing states to condemn global warming as fallacious, even a "religion" as one Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) labeled it.

The Great Global Warming Swindle was indeed a politically-motivated disinformation campaign aimed at protecting the status quo of the industrial-governmental establishment. But while the film pointed to natural causes such as the sun, volcanoes, even our great oceans as the culprit for any "so-called" warming of the earth, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded in its 2007 Fourth Assessment report that global warming is unequivocal, and it is "very likely" caused by human activity. Like President G.W. Bush's July 2007 statement, the IPCC proclaimed in no uncertain terms that climate change due to man-induced global warming is unavoidable.

The question facing humanity is an important one: What should be done? As world citizens become more environmentally aware, reducing carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming is becoming paramount. An important point to remember is that any activity that uses energy (for example electricity) burns fossil fuels on the production side which in turn increases carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, attention must be paid to reducing energy not simply through vehicle use, but also through homes and commercial buildings.

Climate change is unavoidable indeed; but working together, we can reduce our carbon dioxide emissions in order to mitigate the disastrous consequences had we not acted at all.

Source Notes
(1) "President Bush Visits Cleveland, Ohio," White House website, July 10, 2007.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news /releases/2007/07/20070710-6.h tml

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