and

1
CLIMATE CHANGE

• and
• Our Responsibility
• To Sustain Gods Earth

2

• How this presentation came about
• In November 2005 I was given the opportunity to
  attend a conference in Canberra Climate Change
  our responsibility to protect Gods Earth.
• The conference was organised by Catholic
  Earthcare Australia, the national ecological
  agency of the Australian Catholic Bishops
  mandated to promote the ecological conversion
  called for by Pope John Paul II.
• It is not possible to recall/record everything
  that one hears at a conference! The following
  presentation is my attempt to share with others
  what I found compelling. It includes updates as I
  continue to read in this area of Climate Change.
• Annette Shears pbvm

3
REFLECTIONonGods Earth

• PSALM 104
• adapted

4

• Praise the Lord, my soul
• My God, how great you are
• You are clothed with majesty and light

5

• You have spread out
• the heavens
• like a tent

6

• You use the clouds
• as your chariot
• and ride on the wings
• of the wind

7

• You placed the ocean
• over the earth
• like a robe

8

• You make springs flow
• in the valleys

9

• And rivers run
• between the hills

10
They provide water for the wild animals
11

• In the trees nearby
• the birds
• make their nests
• and sing

12

• From the skyyou send rainon the hills
• and the earth is filled with your blessings

13
You make grass grow for the cattle and plants
for us to use
14

• So that we can grow our crops and produce wine to
  make us happy
• and olive oil to make us cheerful
• and bread to give us strength

15

• You created the moonto mark the months
• You made the nightand the darkness
• The sun knows the timeto set

16
There is the ocean, large and wide, where
countless creatures live, large and small alike
17
All of them depend on you to give them food when
they need it.
18
Lord, may your glory last forever I will sing to
the Lord all my life.
As long as I live I will sing praises to my
God May God be pleased with my song.
19

• Global Warming

20

• What are
• some of the changes/effects
• that we can see
• as a result
• of
• Global Warming?

21

• A report
• commissioned by the Australian Government points
  out that some regions are highly vulnerable to
  climate change
• Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef
• The Murray Darling Basin
• SW Western Australia
• Climate Change 2001 The Scientific Basis

22

• Some effects
• DUE TO RISING TEMPERATURES
• Land ice sheets are meltinge.g. Greenland,
  Polar Ice Caps
• Glaciers are shrinking

23
Greenland ice sheets are breaking off faster than
previously believed in the last 10
years,twice as fast.
24

• As the ice sheets in the Arctic recede, polar
  bearshave difficulty finding food.

• Krill, whale food, is not as plentiful

Krill, whale food,is in short supply.
25

• Because of the melting of the polar ice caps, the
  Inuit people, whose whole livelihood depends on
  the environment and the cycle of change in the
  Arctic region, are losing their habitat, food
  source, way of life, culture.

26

• Sea levels are rising
• Loss of land, crops, freshwater supplies in
  Pacific Island Statese.g. Tuvalu, Kiribati,
  Marshall Islands, the Carterets in PNG,
  Bangladesh
• People have had to relocate, leaving whole
  islands empty and, in the process of relocating,
  losing their culture.

(Bangladesh marked above) A 1 metre rise in sea
level would flood rice fields
in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, India and
China, and force many
millions from their homes.
27

• NZ has agreed to accept climate change refugees
  from Tuvalu.
• Canada is funding relocation of parts of Vanuatu.
• Australia has so far refused to accept any
  residents from Tuvalu who appealed for
  relocation.

28

• Other effects of global warming
• Increase in water temperature
• in areas where hurricanes form
• is already resulting
• in more intense
• and more devastating hurricanes
• e.g. Hurricane Katerina that devastatedNew
  Orleans in 2005.

29

• Areas affected by the Tsunami experienced greater
  damage and loss in places where mangroves had
  been removed.

Monsoons failing some areas in Thailand can
no longer grow rice.
30
The Australian Scene
31
SPECIES EXTINCTION
32

• We could be facing
• 20 to 50 of species
• becoming extinctover this century.

33

• Shearwaters on Heron Island have to fly too far
  to find food for their young.
• When the temperaturerises, the amount of food
  the birds bring back goes down.
• As the heat affects the plankton, the schools of
  small fish thin out.
• The tipping point of water temperature is 29o and
  the margins of survival are only 1 or 2 degrees.

34
Mountain Nursery FrogMt Lewis, North Queensland

• At 1200m, the forest is shrouded in mist. It is
  moist enough for the frogs to lay eggs on leaves.
  As the forest warms, the mist goes further up the
  mountain, so the frogs habitat gets higher up.
  Eventually, there will be no part high enough for
  the frogs to go as the mist will be above the
  mountain, not over it.

(Picture is from clipart it is not the actual
Mountain Nursery Frog)
35
Mountain Pygmy PossumSnowy Mountains

• When the snow falls
• on the boulders,
• it creates a blanket
• like a doona
• that keeps the hibernating possums
• warm underneath.

(Picture is from clipart,it is not the actual
possom)
36

• If the snow melts too frequently during the
  winter,or melts early in the spring, the
  possums lose their insulating environment.
• They wake up and use up their own body fat and
  then there is no food to find.
• With 1o rise in annual average temperature, the
  snowline will creep almost to the top of the
  mountain.
• If the Mountain Pygmy Possumloses its
  environment, it will become extinct.

37
The Earths Rainforests

• The loss of the rainforests
• has a great effect
• on Global Warming
• AND
• encapsulates
• many other ecological issues.

38
Effects of Loss of Rainforests

• Land degradation
• Increase in CO² and methane (greenhouse gases)
• Contributes to the breakdown of the ozone shield
• Changes rainfall patterns
• Aids the extinction of species
• Aids the destruction of human beings

39

• Loss of biodiversity
• will mean
• a radical impoverishment
• of biological life
• and a drastic loss
• of the Earths capacity
• for biological adaptivity.

40

• Effects on Health
• Increased incidence of infectious diseases
• and their movement into new regions
• e.g. malaria in some parts of world,
• tick-born encephalitis in Sweden.
• Older persons are susceptible to thermal stress.
• One effect is increase in deaths due to heat
• e.g. in Paris in recent years.
• Prof Tony McMichael

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What causes global warming?
What causes Global Warming?
42
Effects of Solar Radiation
43
Composition of Earths Atmosphere

• The earths atmosphereis made up of
• 78 Nitrogen
• 21 Oxygen
• 1 other gases

Dividing the 1 on the left into 100 parts
gives 76 Carbon Dioxide 13 Methane 6
Nitrous Oxide 5 Fluorocarbons and small
amounts of rare gases
44
Which gases contribute most to Global Warming?

• Carbon Dioxide
• Methane
• Nitrous Oxide
• Fluorocarbons

45
Major contributors to high levels of Carbon
Dioxide in the atmosphere

• Power plants
• Cars and trucks
• Major Transportation
• Factories
• Home Heating Systems
• Deforestation

46
Methane Emissions

• during production and transport of coal, natural
  gas and oil
• decomposition of organic waste
• rice cultivation
• raising livestock (in 1 day, a cow can emit 250gm
  methane 1.3 billion cattle burp several
  times/minute)

47
Nitrous Oxide

• Emitted during
• Industrial activitiese.g. nitrogen fertilizers
• Automobile exhaust
• Disposing of human and animal waste in sewage
  treatment plants

48
Greenhouse gasesare not naturally occurringand
contribute to Global Warming

• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)(used in air
  conditioners and refrigerators - dont harm ozone
  layer BUT trap heat)
• Perfluorcarbons (PFCs)
• Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6)(generated in a variety
  of industrial processes)

49

• Australians are the highest emitters of
  greenhouse gasesin the world.
• We are one of the big causes of the problemyet
  we have been unwilling to accept the consequences
  of our lifestyle.
• Climate Change refugees who are suffering as a
  result of our lifestyle have been refused entry
  to Australia by our Government.

50

• One way our lifestyle worsens the situation
• FOOD
• The average food item travels over 2,000 kmto
  arrive at our table.
• If we eat 10 or so items a day, in a years
  timeour food will have conquered 8 million kmby
  land, sea and air.
• Adapted from Small Wonder, Barbara Kingsolver

51

• Picture a truck loaded with apples and oranges
  and iceberg lettuce rumbling to the moon and back
  ten times a year, all just for you.
• Multiply that by the number of Australians who
  like to eat picture that flotilla of 21 million
  trucks on their way to the moon and ask yourself
  the question
• Isnt it time we revised that scenario?
• The amount of fuel used to transport our food to
  where we buy it
• The effect of the emissions from this fuel as it
  burns to propel the vehicle
• This is just ONE contributer to global warming!

52
Names of Presenterswhose ideas I drew on for
this presentation

• Fr Bill Stoeger SJ cosmologist and
  astrophysicist from the Vatican Observatory and
  University of Arizona
• Dr Janette Lindsay senior lecturer in
  climatology, climate variability and change at
  Australian National University. She also holds
  the position of Education Manager for the
  Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse
  Accounting.

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• Professor Tony McMichael MBBS (Univ Adelaide),
  PhD (Monash Univ), FAFPHM, FTSE biomedical
  scientist and Director of the National Centre for
  Epidemiology and Population Health ANU. Tony has
  recently coordinated the Assessment of Health
  Impacts project for the United Nations
  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
• Fr Sean McDonagh SSC Christian Ecologist,
  lecturer, author of many books in the area of
  religion and the environment, missionary priest
  with the Columban Fathers

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• Brendan Mackey has a PhD in plant ecology from
  the Australian National University. He has worked
  as a research scientist with the CSIRO and the
  Canadian Forest Service.
• Fr Denis Edwards MA Fordham, STD, CUA senior
  lecturer in systematic theology in the School of
  Theology of Flinders University. He teaches for
  Catholic Theological College within the
  ecumenical consortium of the Adelaide College of
  Divinity.
• Fr Michael Mackenzie a Catholic priest from the
  Pacific Island nation of Kirabati
• http//www.catholicearthcareoz.net/conference.html
  content

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Acknowledgements

• Pictures used are from clipart, with the
  exception of the following
• slides
• 1,3,6,18 C OKeeffe pbvm
• 32-36 c/f ABC TV Catalyst, 25 May 2006, Tipping
  Point
• 50, 51 adapted from Small Wonder, Barbara
  Kingsolver, SMALL WONDER New York HarperCollins
  Publishers, April 2002, http//www.kingsolver.com/
  about/about.asp