“Are we going to hand our children and grandchildren

A world vastly different from the one that we now inhabit?

I traveled to the 79^th parallel last August,

And I was overwhelmed by what I saw there,

Particularly the drastic reduction in the glaciers.”

Senator John McCain,

Republican Senator from Arizona

One need not be a biologist or a scientist

To sadly realize the world’s climate is changing

As one who studies the behavior of insects and animals

I know that global aberrations are here now - re-arranging

Robins have been returning to my neighborhood

Earlier and earlier for the past several seasons

And the increasingly mild winters we’re now having

Is definitely the single most plausible reason

Several species of butterflies are now in dire trouble

Because they are increasingly migrating north ever earlier

Many now arriving at their spring feeding grounds to eat

Before plants they rely on have yet begun to bloom and stir

Opossums and foxes are moving further and further northward

To escape increasing southern heat over the last five to ten years

And with each new invasion of yet another migrating species

The dominant species’ have less chance of survival it appears

Red-winged black birds are returning to their summer nests

At least three weeks earlier now than several years ago

And observers of the Arctic’s remaining polar bears

Report dwindling ice is leaving these bears with nowhere left to go

Temperatures in the Arctic are now at least 7 degrees warmer

Than they have ever been over thousands of years prior

And polar ice is being observed that is melting very fast

Without knowing anything else I know that this is dire

Scientists agree the 20^th Century was the warmest of the past 1,000 years

And that 19 of the 20 hottest years on record occurred after the year 1980

If this warming weather trend continues unabated and we take no action

The world inhabited by our children and grandchildren will have no glee

The world’s ocean temperatures will constantly continue to rise

More and more coral reefs and marine animals will continue to die

Land animals will be forced into fighting over remaining food sources

And more heat droughts and human food shortages will make the world cry

Warmer ocean temperatures will also lead to more violent storms

Rising tides increased land erosion and even more deadly hurricanes

And ever-increasing flooding in low lying coastal regions

Bringing more devastating mud slides from ever-increasing rains

The chief culprit in this very apparent increasing global warming

Is the ever increasing carbon dioxide our modern world now spews out

From the world’s ever increasing industrialization and fossil fuel utilization

And carbon dioxide emission is at an all time high – of that there is no doubt

Instead of pursuing sound anti-pollution initiatives and alternate sources of energy

The business world continues to callously drill for even more fossil fuels with glee

Whether each one of us loves land animals sea creatures or the welfare of our offspring

We all better take global warming seriously and begin studying the horrors it may bring

Although the average world temperature has increased only about 1.4 degrees since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the average temperature increases in earth’s polar regions have increased far more significantly – 7 degrees in the Arctic; 4.5 degrees in the Antarctic.  And the average world ocean temperature has risen 2 degrees in the last 20 years.

Many scientists now believe that based on projected future levels of carbon dioxide emission, the average world temperature could rise between 5 and 10 degrees in the next 50 -100 years.  And such a temperature increase would truly be devastating for all life forms on this planet.

Although the opossum is often belittled as an extremely dumb animal, its kind has managed to survive on this planet since the days of the dinosaur.  If the opossum believes that the earth is undergoing severe climactic changes and is attempting to adjust to them, I would tend to believe the opossum over most humans.

The following organizations and 1,500 scientists belonging to them staunchly believe that global warming is, indeed, occurring, and that most of this global warming is the result of modern human activity, not natural activity:

The World Meteorological Organization

The United Nations Environmental Program

The National Academy of Sciences

The American Meteorological Society

The American Geophysical Union

The American Association for the Advancement of Science

The National Wildlife Federation

Senators McCain and Lieberman are valiantly attempting to get the Climate Stewardship Act passed against stiff opposition from utility companies and the oil industry.  Please do your part by urging your legislators to join them in this much needed legislation – before it’s much too late.

“The longer we wait,

The more difficult it will be

To diminish the effects of global warming.”

Senator McCain