Greenpeace campaigner Hilal Atici observed, “If world leaders are unwilling or unable to protect their citizens against the massive floods, droughts, food crises and mass displacements that scientists predict, their leadership becomes meaningless.” Climate change presents a challenge more powerful and subtle than that of the Axis Powers in World War Two.

The harsh predictions are based on scientific observations. Antarctic ice core samples show that methane and carbon dioxide levels are higher than at any time in the past 650,000 years. Carbon dioxide levels rose faster in the twentieth century than they have in the past 20,000 years. Professor Martin Perry of the United Kingdom’s Metrological Office states that a temperate rise of 2.1 to 2.3ºC (about 4º F) will expose up to three billion people to water shortages. As the glaciers in the Andes and Himalayas disappear, people who depend on the meltwater in Pakistan, western China, central Asia. Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia will be in distress. There will be longer and more severe droughts in southern Africa, Australia and the Mediterranean area. As temperatures rise, the incidence of malaria, diarrhea and cholera will increase. Heat waves as the Europeans suffered in 2003 will become more frequent. The moral outrage is that countries like Bangladesh and Ethiopia that have few carbon emissions will suffer the most.