1. The Quiet Apocalypse of Rising Tides Climate change is everywhere, and the somewhat momentous report released February 3 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirms that climate change is man-made, and unstoppable. The 21-page report, described as conservative by the IPCC itself, says man-made emissions of greenhouse gases are to blame for heat waves, floods and heavy rains, droughts and stronger storms (particularly in the Atlantic Ocean), melting ice-caps and raising sea-levels.

Climate change is even penetrating the fears of the righteously paranoid psyches of the scientists and nuclear physicists of the preeminent Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Their “Doomsday Clock” has been ticking away to midnight – the figurative end of civilization – for 61 years of nuclear holocaust watching. They have moved the clock two minutes closer to midnight – now standing at a perilous five minutes to midnight – not only because of the increase in likelihood of nuclear war with the recent events around North Korea and Iran, but also citing “the potential for catastrophic damage from human- made technologies.” In what represents a decisive paradigm shift for the Atomic Scientists, Kennette Benedict, director of the bulletin said, “The dangers posed by climate change are nearly as dire as those posed by nuclear weapons”.

Climate change was a top priority at the recent conference of world business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, as well as the conference of NGO operatives at the World Social Forum in Nairobi. Meanwhile, the European Commission urged its members to adopt an unprecedented common energy policy, aimed at cutting greenhouse gases by 20 percent by 2020. It calls for a “post-industrial revolution” based on a dramatic shift to an internally produced low-carbon energy economy.

Climate change has finally arrived at the White House. President Bush’s State of the Union address, January 27, marked a milestone for his administration in terms of actually recognizing that we may indeed have a man-made problem after all. He acknowledged climate change as “a serious challenge” and the need for reduction in fossil fuel consumption. Rather than announcing a mandatory cap on emissions along the lines of the globally accepted Kyoto Protocol, Bush instead meekly recommend-

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