Posted on 12/10/2004 3:10:55 PM PST by pnome
As scientists debate whether global warming is affecting Earth, "climate witnesses" told a U.N. environmental conference Friday they are already feeling the heat of the changing weather patterns they say are drastically affecting the way of life from the Himalayas to the South Pacific.
"In the past we just accepted it was the will of God," said Penina Moce, a woman from Udu, a fishing village in Fiji. "But now we believe there could be other reasons."
Moce spoke as delegates from nearly 200 countries sat down in Buenos Aires for an annual gathering by government officials, scientists, and environmentalists aimed at trying to reduce "greenhouse" emissions believed by many to be causing a rise in Earth's temperatures.
The 44-year-year-old mother of five said many on her South Pacific island of 400 people are alarmed by recent signs of altering climate: shortened rainy seasons, eroding coastlines and dwindling fish stocks. Water, already in short supply, has become even harder to come by, she said.
"When it rains, everyone will leave whatever they're doing and rush outside to try and save as much water as possible," she said. "We are lucky if it rains for two days straight."
Environmentalists say her testimony exemplifies what is occurring in some areas affected by global warming and climate change — issues the world has tried to address through the Kyoto Protocol (news - web sites), an agreement requiring initial cuts in "greenhouse gas" emissions by 2012 that comes into force in February.
It's been getting unusually warm in Kofi Annan's office
lately, and he's looking for a way to blame the US.
Wow! You can't get any more authoritative than a mother of five from a fishing village.
This is what makes it so hard to defend Evolution. That these so-called "scientists" are acting like paid witnesses at a murder trial.
The scientific profession itself must jerk these guys into line, or else out them as non-scientists. It's tarnishing the image of the field.
Hey, maybe we can get a Hollywood actress or two to testify kinda like when they testified to Congress as farmers!
"It was, like, so hot in my dressing room. Like, all of my Evian wasn't the usual 70.3 degrees."
I would submit an eskimo father of six who doesn't have a word for "robin".
By the way, a very stimulating article...LOL
I'm surprised they didn't trot out some little waif, with big eyes.
Your first instincts were actually correct. Now, get back to your island and start building some idols or sacrificing some virgins :-)
"Your reason for posting this was so that you could lampoon it. Get all of your secularist friends together and have a good laugh at the environmentalist."
Not at the environmentalists, which I consider myself one, but at the U.N.
I would have thought that Al Gore would have been ranting an raving
ping!
I don`t have any idea what her climate is or what a tropical "rainy season" is like but think how often any spot in the US gets 2 rainy days.
It may seem like it but over the course of a year it really isn`t that many times.
I don`t mean showers, I mean steady rain or nearly such for a couple of days running.
I know we get them, maybe 6-10 times in a year, some more some less depending on location.
Up in Washington and Oregon I would think may be the wettest.
Enjoy your time here at Free Republic...I certainly know you're going to be a knee slapper around here.
It is a religion, complete with mystics, high preists, and the jive theory of good and evil.
Why not blame George W. Bush?!
I got your joke. I guess you didn't get mine. Should have followed it up with a :)
"dwindling fish stocks"
Asian fish factory ships.
I would still like one of those guys to explain to me why the earth warmed up 20,000 years ago when the only pollution created by man was camp fires and the occasional fart.
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