By Jon Brodkin, Daily News Staff

Miford Daily News, Thursday, November 16, 2006

NEWTON - A nationally known environmental author called global warming "the profound test for human beings" last night, in a speech criticizing U.S. government inaction on climate change.

 Faced with a problem that could make the planet inhospitable for humans, "there's been a 20-year bipartisan effort to accomplish nothing, and it's been successful," said Bill McKibben, in front of 200 people attending the Charles River Watershed Association's annual meeting.

McKibben wrote "The End of Nature" in 1989, the first book for a general audience about global warming, and is still a frequent writer of books and articles for The New York Times and various magazines.

 Two decades ago, even those who took global warming seriously were not sure whether human activity could cause massive shifts in climate in a short period of time, McKibben said.

But new research has demonstrated the 1-degree increase in global temperature observed by scientists is causing dramatic changes, he said. Temperatures could rise another 5 degrees by the end of the century, making the planet the warmest it has been since before the evolution of primates, and inhospitable for humans in many portions of the globe, he said.

"We've had nine of the warmest 10 years on record. Last year was the warmest year we have records for," McKibben said. "Everything frozen on Earth is melting and melting quickly."

The melting of Arctic sea ice will accelerate warming because the white color of ice reflects sunlight back into space, McKibben said. Winters are already getting shorter, and longer growing seasons potentially can allow carbon trapped in soil to be released into the air, he said.

Katrina, Rita, Wilma and a variety of other storms demonstrated the power of climate change, McKibben said. Katrina and 26 other "named storms" broke the previous record of 21, set in 1933, he said.

Some scientists think humans have just 10 years left to reverse the flow of carbon dioxide emissions before it becomes too late to prevent warming that would turn Earth into a totally different planet, McKibben said.

Efforts to reduce global warming have been limited by the U.S. government's refusal to sign the Kyoto international agreement to curb emissions. McKibben said individuals can take action by using solar panels and buying food at farmer's markets, both of which reduce energy usage.

 Residents of Western Europe lead comfortable lifestyles while using only half the energy of Americans, he said.

"We need a movement with every bit as much moral energy, willingness to sacrifice and commitment ... as the civil rights movement, because this is at least as serious a problem and it has a time limit," McKibben said.

McKibben, who grew up in Lexington, now lives in the Adirondack Mountains of New York and is a scholar in environmental studies at Middlebury College.

The CRWA's annual meeting was held at the Marriott Hotel on Commonwealth Avenue. Before McKibben spoke, the group presented the "Clean Charles" award to Frederick Laskey, executive director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.

In 1988, the MWRA was dumping 1.7 billion gallons of sewage into the Charles River because of combined sewer overflows, said Bob Zimmerman, executive director of the Charles River group. Today, the MWRA discharges just a fraction of that amount - 50 million gallons a year, and a new project will cut that number to 7.6 million gallons next year, Zimmerman said.

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