>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

speaking of global warming: Secretary of State Bill Bradbury delivers a multi-media presentation on the issue of global warming to an audience at Eastern Oregon University Tuesday night. - The Observer/CHRIS BAXTER

At least when it comes to global warming.

Bill Bradbury, Oregon’s secretary of state, is convinced of it.

Bradbury told an audience at EOU Tuesday night that each of the remaining major presidential candidates — presumptive Republican nominee John McCain and Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton — are strong advocates of policies that address global warming.

“All are committed to taking on the issue,’’ Bradbury said.

Bradbury lists McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, as a global warming warrior even though Republicans generally are cool to many of the changes that have been proposed in order to deal with global warming.

“McCain has been aggressive in dealing with climate change. He is not a person who hides from the issue like our current president,’’ said Bradbury during his PowerPoint presentation.

Tuesday’s program was the 113th Bradbury has given in Oregon on climate change since being trained in 2006 by former Vice President Al Gore to give a slide show version of Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.’’

Bradbury is among the first 50 people trained by Gore. Today about 1,000 have been trained to give the presentations.

Bradbury’s program Tuesday was filled with international and regional examples of the devastation global warming is causing and what is likely to occur if it continues.

First, though, Bradbury laid a foundation, explaining in straightforward and easy-to-understand terminology how increasing carbon dioxide levels are raising Earth’s temperature.

Carbon dioxide levels are now higher than they have been at any time in the past 650,000 years, Bradbury said. The proof is in Antarctica where the carbon dioxide level of ice samples dating back 650,000 years have been analyzed. Scientists have found that carbon dioxide levels never exceeded 300 parts per million in the atmosphere at any time in history until now. The level today is 378 parts per million.

The high level goes a long way toward explaining why the winter of 2006-07 was hottest on record and why Earth’s average temperature has increased 1 degree since 1970.

Things will only get worse unless something is done to curb pollution, Bradbury said. Experts predict that in the next 45 years the level of carbon dioxide will increase to 600 parts per million in the atmosphere.

This will exasperate problems that are already becoming apparent.

Lake Chad in the Darfur region of Africa is a prime example, one that helped motivate Bradbury to start helping with Gore’s global warming campaign.

Lake Chad has shrunk dramatically in recent years, costing people in the region water for irrigation and eliminating fishing opportunities. The diminishment of Lake Chad is one of the reasons for the horrific genocide now occurring in the Darfur, Bradbury said.

The secretary of state also pointed out that global warming is causing glaciers in the Arctic to melt at an alarming rate. The loss of these glaciers will ultimately add to global warming because ice reflects sunlight, Bradbury said.

The melting of glaciers in other areas such as Greenland is resulting in rising ocean levels. This is because Greenland’s ice is outside the ocean, thus when it melts water flows into it causing its level to rise.

At the rate ocean levels are increasing, they may rise by 16 feet in several decades. This would mean that large portions of many cities will eventually be submerged. They include San Francisco and Tillamook.

“There will be no dairy farming in Tillamook (if the ocean rises 16 feet),’’ Bradbury said.

Tillamook is one of many regional examples Bradbury referred to.

He also cited examples in the Northwest of the impact global warming is having. For example, warm winters are believed to be reason for Western pine beetle outbreaks that are wreaking havoc in pine forests of British Columbia. He said that by 2015, 80 percent of British Columbia’s pine forests may have been killed by western pine beetle attacks.

Previously, many western pine beetles have been killed off  by cold winters, Bradbury said.

Global warming may also have a major impact on Northwest salmon runs. Bradbury explained that increasing river temperatures are making it harder for salmon to survive in rivers. Experts fear that at the rate river temperatures are rising, the Snake and Yakima rivers will be too warm for salmon by 2040. In addition, large portions of the Rogue and Willamette rivers will be too hot for salmon to live.

Bradbury also referred to many disappearing glaciers in the West as casualties of global warming. They include the glaciers at Glacier National Park in Montana.

“It will be the most misnamed national park by 2012 because it is expected that it will not have any remains of glaciers left by then,’’ he said.

Bradbury received his global warming training from Gore at a session at Gore’s home in Carthage, Tenn. He said the extent of Gore’s knowledge about the subject is astounding.

“He is really committed to the issue. He can talk about it for six hours. Only every once in a while would he refer a question to a scientist,’’ Bradbury said.

Gore is much different in person than he appeared during his unsuccessful presidential campaign of 2000.

“He is funny. During the campaign he was too stiff. He is not that way in person. He is a real kick,’’ Bradbury said.

Each person trained by Gore is expected to give 10 global warming presentations a year. Bradbury has far exceeded this requirement.

He tells people that he is doing this because he believes that as a parent he has responsibility to help leave the world “at least as good as the one we were blessed to be born into.’’