“Let no one say we cannot afford to act,” Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared today at the second meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, in conjunction with the twelfth session of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention, held in Nairobi, Kenya.

Kenya has already suffered the evidence of global warming, as I mentioned in my August 30 post. And yet, there are those who doubt that worldwide climate change is upon us. Alas, I live in one of the countries that have rejected the Kyoto Protocol, which requires 35 industrial nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent of 1990 levels by 2012.

The Associate Press reported today that Annan criticized the naysayers and slow actors, saying they are “out of step” and “out of time.”

After his speech, he told reporters, “I would want leaders around the world to really show courage and to know that if they do, their people and the voters will be with them.” To some degree, I’d have to agree. However, even if Bush changed his mind, I still wouldn’t vote for him. He has caused too much damage already.

Although the chief U.S. delegate responded to Annan’s comments, at a later news conference, that Washington has been a leader with “groundbreaking initiatives” on clean-energy technology, I believe it is too little, too late. The U.S. argues that reducing global-warming gases would set back the economy too much. However, at some point, we need to realize that our pocket books are not more important than the millions of lives, present and future, human and otherwise, that our actions will affect.

Annan contended that climate change “is not science fiction.” According to the Associate Press, he referred to a recent British government report that projects the effects of global warming, including rising sea levels, droughts and other climatic disturbances, could cost up to 20 percent of the global gross domestic product each year.

“It is increasingly clear it will cost far less to cut emissions now than to deal with the consequences later,” Annan said.

There is hope for the U.S.’s involvement in the future, however. According to Philip Clapp, president of the U.S. group National Environmental Trust, both Democratic and Republican hopefuls for the 2008 presidential election favor putting a cap on U.S. emissions.

For more information on this issue, check out these resources:

United Nations Climate Change Conference - Nairobi 2006
unfccc.int/meetings/cop_12/items/3754.php

Earth Share
www.earthshare.org/index.html

Climate Change information from the Council on Foreign Relations
www.cfr.org/issue/20/climate_change.html

Pew Center on Global Climate Change
www.pewclimate.org

An Inconvenient Truth (on DVD Nov. 21)
www.climatecrisis.net

Much like human females, lionesses fancy thick, full manes on their men. But unlike human males, climate is a large factor in how full and thick a lion’s mane will get, research published in the April 13, 2006, issue of the Journal of Mammalogy found.

The study, based on zoo animals throughout the United States, showed that up to one-half of the length and density of zoo lion’s manes could be attributed to temperature. The lion’s mane, which can hinder heat loss just like a wool scarf, is primarily used to attract females.

But being sexy comes at cost: it takes energy to grow and maintain a full mane, it can make it harder to sneak up on prey, it makes a great home for parasites, it catches on bramble more easily, and, as this study shows, it can make it harder to keep cool while hanging out on the Serengeti.

“Many variables interact to affect mane development in wild lions,” said Dr. Bruce Patterson, lead author of the paper and principal investigator of Earthwatch’s Lions of Tsavo project. “Several of these variables, including food, water and social groupings are controlled in zoological parks, where the authors show climate has a major effect on more development.”

This pans out in the wild, where lions in the hottest climates have little or no mane at all. “This is the case in Tsavo, Kenya,” said Patterson, “where most lions are maneless.”

So, could global warming make lions with dark, luxurious manes a thing of the past as Peyton M. West suggests in his American Scientist article, “The Lion’s Mane”? Previous research has indicated that in areas of east Africa most impacted by global warming, lion manes have been getting thinner and less ostentatious.

For more information about Earthwatch’s Lions of Tsavo project and the scientists working on the project, visit www.earthwatch.org/site/pp2.asp?c=dsJSK6PFJnH&b=1147599.

The snows of Kilimanjaro are not the only victims of climate change and global warming. Recently, the Rwenzori Centenary Expedition found evidence that glaciers are receding on Africa’s largest alpine region, located in Uganda. The study by British and Ugandan scientists predicts that the equatorial icecaps will disappear within two decades because of global warming.

“Recession of these tropical glaciers sends an unambiguous message of a changing climate in this region of the tropics,” said Richard Taylor of the University College London Department of Geography, who led the study funded by The Royal Geographical Society and The Royal Society. Taylor and his colleagues found that in the Rwenzori Mountains, also known as the Mountains of the Moon, there have been clear trends since the 1960s toward increased air temperature without significant changes in precipitation.

Still unknown is how this projected loss of the glaciers will affect tourism, as well as local traditional belief systems, that depend on the snow and ice, known locally as “Nzururu.”

The Rwenzori Mountains, also known as the Mountains of the Moon, sit astride the border between the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Uganda.

“Considering the continent’s negligible contribution to global greenhouse-gas emissions,” said Taylor, “it is a terrible irony that Africa, according to current predictions, will be most affected by climate change.”

The Rwenzori Mountains National Park, in Uganda, is one of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites. A scientific team has been charged with studying maps of the glaciers, comparing the cartography from 1955 to reports from 1906.