Recently the Seattle Times published a compelling article on climate change in the Arctic (Jan 1st). Temperatures there are about seven degrees Fahrenheit warmer and sea levels about eight inches higher than fifty years ago.

As a result, the polar ice cap has shrunk over 15 percent in the last three decades (and will be gone by the end of the century). Not surprisingly, the ecology is thrown out of balance. Polar bears, for instance, are drowning for the first time on record while swimming between melting sheets of ice. Most frightening are the unknown effects of the melting permafrost, which contains about 25 percent of the world's carbon that is locked in soil. If that carbon ends up in the atmosphere, which it very well might, we may reach a tipping point that accelerates global climate change beyond our ability to slow it.

Remarkably, the Seattle Times article failed to mention that global climate change is mainly caused by human activity, something even acknowledged by top Administration officials. It is us, particularly in the industrialized countries, who are melting the permafrost, and it is our collective moral responsibility to address the situation. Why this responsibility should be shirked by the Times can only lead one to speculate. Of course, the Times isn't the only culprit evading responsibility.

According to the scientific consensus, we need to reduce our fossil fuel use by 70 percent in a very short time. The Netherlands is already implementing a plan to curb emissions by 80 percent in 40 years. French

President Jacques Chirac has called on the entire industrial world to cut emissions by 75 percent by 2050 (Ross Gelbspan, www.heatisonline.org). Meanwhile, the Bush administration has scuttled progress at the recent Montreal round of climate negotiations, calling for voluntary reductions through the unproven technology of carbon sequestration. In the words of retired journalist, Ross Gelbspan, "Where can one find people with the courage to put a stop to the carbon lobby and their political handmaidens who are dragging the rest of us straight to the bottom of climate hell?"

As Seattle citizens we also share in the responsibility for global warming. Although thanks to the progressive policies of Seattle City Light, most of our electricity comes from renewable hydroelectric power, tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide are pumped into our air from our clogged freeways. The implications are clear, at least to me: We must phase out the private automobile if we want to do our part to save the planet for future generations.

Perhaps one day carbon sequestration--capturing carbon dioxide at the source--will become a reality. Until then I think it would be irresponsible to pursue a path of replacing our current car fleet with a more efficient fleet, such as the plug-in hybrids favored by the environmental community. To be sure, 100 miles per gallon vehicles will help ease our oil addiction, but the price of that addiction will still be measured in the blood of innocents in the oil-rich countries, in Iraq, Iran and elsewhere.

In any case, the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (www.peakoil.net) estimate that global oil production will go into decline after 2010 due to depletion. After that, oil will become increasingly expensive and less available. If we want to make our city viable for the future, we must build a county-wide mass transit system that replaces the automobile as the vehicle of choice.

Now that the monorail project is dead, we should take the opportunity to build a cheaper and more extensive system. One promising option is Bus Rapid Transit (www.gobrt.org), which could complement our Light Rail. (Los Angeles has recently opened such a BRT project along the San Fernando Valley, where buses run at 5 minute intervals at peak time along dedicated roadways with adjoining bicycle lanes.)

The cities that plan ahead will be the ones that weather best the impending era of oil depletion that lies right up ahead. At the same time, we can act to help save the coastal communities and ecosystems that are already dying, our canaries-in-the-coal-mine. To paraphrase an old adage from the Industrial Workers of the World, we must the build the new society inside the shell of the old, a shell that is looking increasingly frail. While we still have time.