Chilling and Warming

For this week, these two apparently diametrically opposite heat sensations become the two sides of the same coin, following the latest update on the state of our climate, or rather climate change, by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the final arbiter on our culpability in inducing global warming through our economic activities here on earth.

That happened in Paris two days ago, and the event was preceded by a total lights out for the Eiffel Tower for 10 minutes. An ominous portent indeed.

Chilling, on the other hand, is the operative word used to describe the contents of the IPCC report, on the Today show, which I watched over the NBC channel yesterday morning.

Among the “doomsday” scenarios:

a) Temperature rising of possibly 1.1 to 6.4 deg Celsius by the end of the present century;

b) Sea level rising of 28 to 43 cm at the conclusion of the same century.

And perhaps the shocker or the wake-up call, depending on your degree of climate skeptisim:

The report is 66 - 90% sure the worsening global warming trend in the past century is man-made, or anthropogenic, to use an oft-applied term, based on unequivocal evidence.

And that warming trend will continue unabated even if we stop emitting greenhouse gases from this minute on, let alone doing nothing about it, or business as usual, in climate parlance.

There is even a link to the intensification of the hurricanes, and the havoc wrought by Katrina may be the harbinger of things to come.

For a primer on climate change and more on the IPCC's role and the periodically updated reports, go to the climate watch website of BBC News from where this depiction of a hazy, smoke stacked airscape is taken.

To use a term appropriate to this age of computerese as heard over the Today show, there is no rewind button.

The rise is already locked in, much like you lock in a mortgage rate within a certain period, except here that we are not only locking in the rising trend, but the rising rate as well, due to the inherent time shift between adding something and feeling the effect.

Not surprisingly, developing countries such as China and India are the primary contributors of greenhouse gases as a result of their feverish pace of development, consuming fossil-based energy in the process.

What China, India, and other developing countries are doing now, bringing development to their people, is no different than what the industrial west countries were doing in the past. It is a necessary stage to a developed status in nation building. There is no bypassing for the developing countries, except perhaps to learn from the throes undergone by these so-called “first to market” nations, and in the process, transiting the journey in more environment-friendly ways.

Undeniably some of this less than wise use of earth resources, the majority of which still reside in the developing countries, waiting to be plundered, is fueled by the demands of the developed nations.

So it makes global sense, and actually behooves the developed nations, to help the developing countries to develop in a sustainable manner, through both technical and financial assistance, and to curb their (the former) wasteful ways as well so as not to drive up the demand for resources.

Shored up by their advanced technological base, the developed nations are also poised to face up to the challenge of innovating for a better world where the only warming is experienced at the heart: a warmth shared by all humanity toward a common destiny, a habitable Planet Earth.