As if it isn’t clear that global warming is being fueled by our use of fossil fuels, the Bush administration is coming up with new rules that will allow coal companies to expand their mountaintop removal activities. Despite major support for a clean energy economy from the public and many in the private sector, the Bush administration has decided to once again ignore the massive public outcry in the hopes of making a few wealthier.

Coal is the main source of global warming pollution by far. The cheapest way of extracting coal, called strip mining or mountaintop removal, has already flattened more than 400 mountains, destroyed dozens of communities, filled up thousands of miles of rivers and streams with toxic waste and eliminated vast areas of forests in the U.S.

This year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, with more than 2,500 world-renowned scientists, concluded that it was “unequivocal” that our use of fossil fuel is warming the planet and would lead to dire consequences for the future, including up to three billion people without access to food or water. We’re already seeing this in many Asian and African countries, as well as in our own Southwest.

More recently, new studies have shown that the Arctic summer sea ice has reached record lows, possibly becoming ice-free within 10 years, and that Greenland and West Antarctica could disintegrate this century without substantial reductions in our global warming pollution, raising sea levels by as much as 14 meters.

Recent studies all point to the fact that the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are being outpaced by current observations in the climate, and that tipping points — points of no return — are very likely to be reached with no drastic action to reduce global warming pollution. These include massive die-off of the Amazon rainforest, the release of a huge amount of methane from melting permafrost and Siberian frozen peat bogs and an ice-free summer Arctic, which would absorb much more heat with open dark waters and send Greenland into the ocean.

But people everywhere are not remaining inactive about these kinds of irresponsible actions by our government. Cornell has joined over 300 colleges and universities that have pledged to become climate neutral. California, New Jersey, Oregon, Hawaii, Florida and other states have passed aggressive laws to fight global warming. The list goes on, at the local and international levels. And on Nov. 3, hundreds of communities around the nation will join Step It Up 2 to call on Congress to 1) prohibit the construction of new coal-burning power plants, 2) fund the creation of a Green Corps to begin implementing global warming solutions and 3) cut global warming pollution by 10 percent within three years.

The most recent scientific studies all show that if we want to reduce the risks of catastrophic climate change, which would likely have effects never seen before on human society, we have to become, like Cornell will, climate neutral as soon as possible. We can’t risk taking a path of moderate annual reductions in global warming pollution. We need a complete overhaul of the subsidies for fossil fuels, a commitment to subsidize the massive deployment of clean energy and energy efficiency technologies and a binding international treaty where funds collected in the developed world help developing nations become climate neutral as well.

Our response to global warming must be patriotic, aggressive and global. Our leaders need to understand that we, especially youth, will not accept anything less. We will not risk our future on the belief that action would be costly, especially when we know that inaction would be at least 10 times costlier Without a major change in the status quo, we will most certainly cook the planet, and that is something we shouldn’t accept.

Global warming may well be the biggest threat the world faces today. Within our lifetime, we may see our planet being complete transformed into something highly undesirable. A more responsible administration would not allow for further expansion of coal use and would, instead, shift all fossil fuel subsidies to renewable energies. Universities like Cornell are setting the right example for the world. Visionary decisions like the one President Skorton made this year to make Cornell climate neutral are the ones that will give us a chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change. It is time for real leaders to act much more seriously on this issue.

Carlos Rymer is the vice president of KyotoNow! and Sciences. He can be contacted at cmr55@cornell.edu. Guest Room appears periodically.