OUR PLANET is warming rapidly, and changes are         
spreading faster than we realize. For ten thousand
years the Earth nurtured human life and fostered
the development of civilization, but it is now becoming
less hospitable. Everyone, in every nation, will feel the
effects of climate change.

This profound global change is caused by how we
get and use energy. We must overhaul our energy
base, and in a very short time, to prevent accelerating
climate disruptions. Fortunately, tools already
exist to change our sources and curb our waste of
energy - a transition that will also benefit many other
parts of our lives. What is most lacking, at this point,
is the will to change.

Earth Under Fire: How Global Warming is Changing the World
Gary Braasch, University of California Press, 2007

Kudos to Al Gore for his seminars, his "An Inconvenient Truth", his Nobel Prize and his forthrightness at the Bali conference in clarifying that a new administration in Washington, DC, may change our country's role for the better in the 2010 round of talks addressing the climate crisis.

Kudos also to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, for their accomplishments in passing legislation that finally starts addressing global warming.

When all is said and done, much more needs to be done. Gore challenges us to "go far and go fast". To do this, we need all the attention that President-Elect Barack Obama and and our new Senators and Congresspeople can bring to bear in addressing the urgency of this crisis. And each of us, in our own way, need to become part of the solution and reduce our personal carbon footprint. Figure out how to do that with San Francisco State University's carbon calculator.