Monday, June 19, 2006

Global Warming and Your Next Vacation

I saw An Inconvenient Truth about a week ago in a theater just half a block from the NRDC's energy-efficient office in Santa Monica. It's well worth seeing. Think Al Gore with passion . . . and a PowerPoint presentation worthy of Robert Langdon.

I was reminded of a series in USA Today during the week of May 28 entitled "Making Sense of Global Warming." Here's the summary of the series (as published in USA Today on Tuesday, May 30):

Wednesday:
What will the future hold for the USA if warming continues?
Experts examine how changes in the climate are affecting outdoor sports such as surfing, skiing and fishing.
Animals, birds and fish are falling victim.

Thursday:
Corporate America is embracing the anti-warming cause. A look at the evolution in corporate thinking, motivated by economic effects of climate change and new markets for "green" products.
How one Boulder, Colo. family changed its home and lifestyle to make a difference

Friday:
Across the planet, global warming could change life as we know it. In less than 100 years, Venice and Amsterdam could be under water. London could be a tropical paradise.
Celebrities join the crusade on TV and at the movies.
Worried ski resports are cutting emissions.
Warming could redraw wine country's boundaries.

Let's see if I've got this straight: The primary problem global warming presents, according to USA Today, is that it will change a lot of people's vacation plans.

I suspect the members of AOSIS don't see the issue in quite the same way.