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By Saad Omar

One of the great paradoxes of the modern age is that Muslims seem to be completely apathetic towards the environment. Theoretically speaking, it would seem that Islam would encourage Muslims to become ‘Champions of the Earth’ and its preservation but strangely enough, one could scratch their head for hours and not be able to come up with a single prominent environmentalist that is also vocally Muslim.

At our conferences we talk about geo-political disputes, spirituality (recently), identity, the Quran, the Hadith, the Prophet’s life, community and social issues, and of course “the three necessaries M’s” (Meat, Music, and Marriage), but strangely enough, the environment is completely non-existent on our agendas and programs.

Oh but of course there is one book on “Islam and the Environment.” And yes, when there is a conference on the environment at our local Universities, the MSA President brings up that it would be a good idea to “represent the Muslims” at this program. So we take that one book about Islam and the environment and set up a little booth at the program. Then we quote beautiful Quranic verses and Prophetic sayings about the Earth’s preservation. Then we return back to our little MSA office to organize another “Big Fat Muslim Wedding” program to highlight the necessity of leading about marriage and its responsibilities. For a second, let’s stop thinking of spouses, and think of our children.

I have attached notes that I have prepared on Al Gore’s Oscar winning documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.” I encourage you to read the notes, watch the original documentary, and get involved.

Hopefully, the head scratching will decrease in coming years and we can find those amongst our community heading environmental issues.

We are after all Gods Khulafa “Vicegerents” on this Earth, may we never realized what that meant.

You can find a comprehensive list of the different organizations that are working to preserve the environment: http://www.foe.co.uk/pubsinfo/infosyst/other_services.html

An Inconvenient Truth
An Award Winning Documentary on Global Warming

Notes by Saad Omar

* What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. Its what we know for sure, that just ain’t so. -Mark Twain

* Many people have the misconception that the world is so big that we can’t possibly change its composition.

*I don’t think people realize how thin and thus vulnerable the Earth’s atmosphere is.

*The process of global warming
1. The sun’s radiation shines upon the earth in the form of heat waves
2. Most of this radiation is absorbed into the earth and warms it. Some energy is radiated back into space by the earth in the form of infrared waves.
3. Some of this infrared radiation being reflected back into space is trapped by the outer layer of the atmosphere and warms it, maintaining a liveable climate.
4. The problem is that the thin layer of atmosphere is being thickened by all of the global warming pollution causing more infrared radiation to remain in the earth’s atmosphere.

10 Minutes

* Roger Revelle: First person to propose the measuring of Carbon Dioxide levels in the atmosphere. In 1957 they executed the experiment.

* Most of the earth’s landmass and vegetation is north of the equator and thus during the northern hemisphere’s spring and summer, the leaves inhale the Carbon Dioxide, bringing down the CO2 levels and during the fall and winter when the leaves fall, they exhale CO2, adding to the atmospheric Carbon Dioxide levels.

* The CO2 levels have just continued to increase year after year and we are now starting to see the effects in our world.

*40 percent of the people on earth get their drinking water from rivers and spring systems that are fed more than ½ by the melt water that come from mountain glaciers and within the next 50 years, these 40 percent of the people are going to face major problems.

*If you compare 1000 years of world temperature values to 1000 years of Carbon Dioxide levels, there is a very clear direct relationship between the two.

20 Minutes

* An elite group of scientist have been able to track Carbon Dioxide and world temperature values in the last 650,000 years of the earth’s existence and Carbon Dioxide levels have never been even close to how high they are today.

*If the trend continues, within the next 50 years we will see unimaginable temperature increases.

*Gore says that he had such a trust in our Democratic system that he believed that in the past decades, he would be able to startle congress with this information and that they would make drastic changes, but that didn’t happen.

* The ten hottest years recorded have all been in the last 14 years.

* The massive heat wave in 2003 in Europe killed 35,000 people and in India in 2003, the temperature went to 122 F.

* The oceans have also experienced very significant temperature increases which explains the increases in the natural disasters that we’ve seen.

30 Minutes

*We have also recently been setting all time records of tornadoes in the US and in Japan in 2004 they recently set their all time record for typhoons.

* The science text books have to be written because they say its impossible to have a hurricane in the South Atlantic but in the same year, 2004, the first one hit Brazil.

*Hurricane Katrina was a category 1 when it his Florida but then it went over warmer waters and as the water temperature increases, the wind velocity and moisture content increases.

* We have to think about how we react when we hear “warnings” from leading scientists in the world.

* Speaking of unprecedented natural disasters that were to hit England, Winston Churchill said.” “The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering an Era of Consequences.

* July 2005 in Mumbai India there were 37 inches of rain in 24 hours, by far the greatest downpour, any Indian city has reached.

* Global warming not only increases precipitation but also shifting these precipitation, leading to great increases in droughts worldwide. Especially disastrous effects in Africa.

* Soil evaporation increases very starkly with global warming.

40 minutes

*For about 11,000 years, since the last ice age, climate patterns had remained relatively the same, until recently.

* The largest ice shelf in the artic, the Ward Hunt ice shelf, cracked in half 3 years ago, the scientists were astonished.

* 35 years ago, 235 days a year, Alaska’s tundra was safe to drive on, no its about 75 days a year because the Spring is coming sooner and the Fall comes later.

* The Artic icecap has diminished by 40 percent in 40 years.

* Within the next 50-70 years, studies are showing, it will be completely gone.

* When the sun hits the ice, 90 percent of it reflects back into the atmosphere, like a mirror. When the sun hits the water, more than 90 percent of it is absorbed and thus as the surrounded water heats up, it speeds up the melting of the ice.

* For the first time they have found polar bears that have actually drowned, swimming up to 60 miles to find ice.

* When the ice is gone, all of that radiation from the sun will accelerate the heating of the earth.

50 minutes

* As Americans, we are by far the worst contributors to the problem on the face of the Earth.

* There are millions of ecological niches that are affected by global warming.

* Everything from the increase of infectious diseases to the emergences of new diseases are in part due to global warming.

* When floating ice melts in Antarctica, it doesn’t increase total water levels but when land based ice melts, it spills over, causing massive floads.

* If West Antarctica was to go, Sea Level worldwide would go up by 20 feet.

* Greenland is even more unstable and would also raise seal level almost 20 feet if it melted.

60 minutes

* Over 200 million will be affected if half of Greenland and half of West Antarctica were to melt or 100 percent of either and it is very likely.

* From 1945 to 2005, the population has grown from 2.3 billion to 6.5 billion.

* By 2050, population is projected to reach 9 billion so it is not hard to realize that something very profound is changing in this world. We are exerting much harsher pressure on the Earth.

* Almost 30 percent of all the Carbon Dioxide that goes to the atmosphere each year comes from forest burning.

* Old habits + old technology= Predictable consequences

* Old habits + new technology=Dramatically altered consequences

* The old habit of war has dramatically changed due to new warfare, similarly, the way we exploit our world is an old habit, technology has changed the extent of exploitation in a profound manner.

* Our country is responsible for 30 percent of the world’s global warming.

* Our country is responsibly than more than all of South America, Africa, the middle east, and Asia combined.

* If destruction seems gradual we are capable of sitting there and not responding, the problem is, the problem is not even gradual.

70 minutes

* There is no disagreement on the issue of global warming in the scientific communities, this is a misconception created by corporations.

* Philip Cooney was a lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute and in January 20th 2001 he was appointed by the President in charge of environmental policy. After editing a report to conceal a report about Global Warming, with no scientific training. He resigned and then went on to work for the Exxon Mobile, the day after.

* Upton Sinclair: “It’s difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon him not understanding it.”

* We don’t have to choose between the economy and environment.

80 Minutes

* American mileage standards are much lower than the rest of the world, leading to much more pollution.

* Some practical ways to decrease greenhouse gases.
1.Electricity end-use efficiency
2.Other end-use efficiency
3.Passenger vehicle efficiency
4.Other transport efficiency
5.Renewables
6.CCS & Supply Efficiency

* In America, political will is a renewable resource.

* Only two advanced nations in the world have not ratified Kyoto: Australia and United States.

* However, many US cities and individual states have taken intiative.

* We must take individual responsibility on this issue and not divert responsibility.

* We must also work towards institutional change.

* “This is a moral issue. It is your time to seize this issue. It is our time to rise again to secure our future.”

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