Climate warning

With Earth Day just ahead on April 22, it is a good time to consider the existential threat that climate change poses to Israel and, indeed, all life on our planet. An outrageous exaggeration? Please consider the following: r $MJNBUF DIBOHF JT B NBKPS threat to humanity, largely caused by human activity. This is the view of science academies worldwide, 97% of climate scientists, almost all of the many peer-reviewed articles on the subject that have appeared in respected scientific journals, and the leaders of all the 195 nations meeting at the 2015 climate-change conference in Paris. r 5IF QSFWJPVT UISFF ZFBST IBWF successively broken temperature records. Every decade since the 1970s has been warmer than the previous decade. The last 17 years were the warmest since 1880, when temperatures began being recorded. r (MBDJFST XPSMEXJEF BOE QPMBS icecaps have been melting more rapidly than climate experts predicted. r 5IFSF IBT CFFO B TJHOJGJDBOU increase in the number and severity of heat waves, droughts, wildfires, storms, floods and other climate events. Military experts believe that these events will result in tens of millions of desperate, hungry refugees making instability, violence, terrorism and war more likely. r 8IJMF UIF NBOZ SFDFOU TFWFSF climate events have resulted from an average temperature increase of slightly above one degree Celsius, we are now on track for a rise of at least four degrees Celsius – which would result in an unlivable world. Many climate experts believe that the world is on the brink of a tipping point where climate change could spin out of control, with disastrous consequences.

The Jerusalem Post would do a great public service, a sanctification of God’s name, by using its excellent writers and editors to help increase awareness of the seriousness of the threats and the steps that should be taken to help avert a climate catastrophe. RICHARD H. SCHWARTZ

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