Countering the threat of global warming

BY SCOTT PUTNAM

Efforts to curb global warming have been widely reported for years now. The Bali "action plan," which nearly 190 countries, including the United States, agreed to last December, has been a positive step forward, but much remains to be done. Reducing greenhouse gases by preserving forests, cutting carbon emissions, and taking other steps that will help turn down the heat of global warming will take patience, commitment, and a willingness for everyone to work together toward that goal.

Although I have been aware of the concerns about climate change and many of the efforts being made to address it, nothing brought it quite as vividly to my attention as a flight last winter that my wife and I took from Munich to San Francisco.

The flight pattern took us over the Arctic Ocean. When the cloud cover finally lifted, I looked down with fascination at the giant fissures in the vast Arctic ice sheet. I asked myself, "Is this evidence of global warming?" In time we came to the northern reaches of Hudson Bay in Canada. As we flew over open water, dotted with icebergs that February, I asked myself if this early melting of the bay's ice was the result of global warming. I didn't know what climate experts would say about this, but it sent me to consider prayerfully the threat of global warming and how I could helpfully reason abut it.

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