Climate Change: Making The Most Of Bali Conference To the informed mind, no issue is as important to
man at the moment as the threat to his climate. As for the uninformed however, the issue is neither here nor there. Yet the figures made available on the extent to which man’s
Climate is ruined give cause for alarm. Not a few important personalities, bodies, agencies, countries have been paying
attention to the cry of the scientists as regards the incalculable damage that mankind has caused to happen to his environment. From the likes of former American Vice President, Al Gore; former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair; German Chancellor, Angela Merkel to UN’s Ban Ki Moon as well as the UN panel on climate change, the Commonwealth, to the Swedish Academy of Science - the body that sees to the award of the Nobel prize - the world is awash with the voice of many who call attention to the danger of climate change. The Commonwealth, for instance, issued what it called a "strong political statement", informing of the need to take action on matters of climate change at its recently concluded meeting in Uganda. Nations too are not left out. Britain strongly backs the need for urgent actions. Germany too does as well as Australia under its newly elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Above all, the EU, as one body is fully in agreement on the need to do something drastic.
Yet, it is not as if anyone needed to make a noise before all pay attention to the problem in the first place. For the signs of the danger into which man has put himself with the dramatic
negative changes in his climate are there for all to see. They have always been there right from the time of the
ancient civilizations. The history of man shows that changes in climate affected his settlement for instance. Great cities and empires rose where water was available. From ancient China to Mesopotamia all the way to Egypt that was built around the Nile River down to the great
civilizations of Peru in South America which eventually had to fold up by the ninth century due to lack of water, all the traits of man’s dependence on his climate for survival abound. Way back that time, there was not much of man’s activities comparable to what obtains in modern time to cause negative effects in global climate. But climate change happened nevertheless.
Six thousand years ago, the entire area that is today known as the Sahara Desert used to have flourishing forests and grasslands where animals such as lions were plenty. As a matter of fact, the warriors of Carthage led by Hannibal caught elephants to wage war against Rome from what is now a desert. In the last five thousand years however, rain stopped falling in needed quantity in the area, in consequence, it dried up and turned sandy.
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