Green with environmental zeal

The year 1992 was the hottest year on record, until it was eclipsed by 2002. That was overtaken by 2005, and experts say that record isn't safe either.

According to energy policy attorney Luis Martinez, who lectured on ending global warming at Lafayette Presbyterian Church on Wednesday, temperatures aren't getting any cooler, "global warming won't wait."

According to Martinez, whose lecture was sponsored by the UB Green office, climate change is happening so rapidly that people must act now if they hope to save the planet.

Since 1979, the size of the North Pole has decreased by more than 25 percent. More than 20,000 Europeans died in 2003 from a massive heat wave. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated hundreds of thousands of homes in 2005. And, if the sea level rises one meter, Miami will go underwater.

"I think the timing is critical to start organizing people. It's critical that we start doing something to force the issue nationwide," said community member, Robert J. Sienkiewicz.

This climate change is a result of what are called "greenhouse gasses" which act as an insulator for the earth. This "greenhouse effect" is what allows Earth to be warm enough for people to live. The problem comes when too many of these heat-trapping gasses, mostly carbon dioxide, are released into the atmosphere allowing less heat to escape.

"One hundred and sixty thousand years ago, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was about 200 parts per million. Now it's about 380 ppm. By the year 2100," Martinez said, "that number will be about 650ppm, following the current trend."

Environmentalist and climate-change expert David Orr, described the point at which "horrible things happen" to be roughly 450 to 500ppm.

Those horrible things are already starting to happen according to Martinez.

"Hurricanes are entering the Gulf of Mexico as category one's and because of the warmer surface temperature, they jump to category five's and are barreling down on the coast," Martinez said.

The implications of a warmer Earth spread further than the weather.

"Warmer temperatures also mean the spread of disease. Malaria and yellow fever will spread north and south as the climate warms up. Also with a small change in temperature, coral reefs will die and have been dying. The fish that live in them will die and so on up the food chain," Martinez said.

Automobiles, coal burning, and power use in general all put carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Along with continual deforestation worldwide, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is far exceeding the amount that can be processed and eliminated.

"Two of the most rapidly developing countries in the world, China and India, are looking at coal as a natural resource. There's a huge amount of coal carbon dioxide in China and India which is obviously a big problem if you want to keep carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere," Martinez said.

There are ways that people can slow, halt, and even reverse damage done by global warming. The type of energy, car, and even light bulb that one uses are crucial to saving energy.

"Compact florescent light bulbs last much longer and use much less energy. They're great for curbing carbon dioxide output," Martinez said. "We need to focus more on renewables such as ethanol, wind, and sunlight as power sources. By 2025, we can replace 80 percent of the gasoline we use by growing corn and sugar cane in the U.S.," he said.

Jim Simon, a graduate student at UB and head of the UB Climate Action Initiative, began the panel discussion by saying people can write senators or representatives and encourage them to push environmental issues forward.

"I see universities as ambassadors. At UB we're beginning an inventory of our greenhouse gas emissions. We want to know the amount of energy that we purchase. We have a number of commuters driving to UB and we want to know how much they produce," Simon said.

Simon also suggested that people do a similar inventory at home.

"People should ask how much energy we use. How much do we drive each day? Where do our goods come from?" Simon said.

"I think it's good to know what you can do locally, like, do an inventory to see how much energy you use or start a local climate action group. There's obviously a lot of people interested," said community member Ann Zagare, one of the over 60 people who gathered in the basement of the Lafayette Presbyterian Church on Wednesday.

One student posed the energy question to UB's administration.

"They talked all night about where the environment will be in 15 years. I find it inexcusable that President Simpson's UB 2020 mentions nothing about UB as an environmental steward. What good is this so-called plan if it doesn't acknowledge the fight for a dying world," said Creighton Randall, a senior mechanical engineering major and member of Engineers for a Sustainable World.

Bill Nowak, a member of the Wind Action Group, presented several "wedges" that can be completed to make up for one seventh of the damage done per wedge.

"We need to put as much carbon dioxide into the earth as oil is coming out," he said. "We would need one million, two megawatt turbines (windmills) to make up one wedge. That's 50 times as many as we have now. To make up another wedge we would need to regenerate 300 million hectares of tropical forest," Nowak said.

Nowak said that Western New York has a great opportunity for the production of wind energy.

"Wind is abundant, cheap, clean, and climate benign. Western New York can replace our coal with our wind," Nowak said.

Diane Ciurczak, a local attorney and proponent of climate action spoke about people getting involved in their communities and environment.

"We need a broad-based social movement," Ciurczak said. "People aren't making their voices heard. Several opportunities are coming and going in the form of legislation because people aren't being heard."