A Disturbing Truth, Al Gore's book, is published in Hebrew translation

Excerpt from Al Gore's book "A Disturbing Truth - Global Warming Crisis" * Gore and the Panel for the Study of Climate Warming won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 * The prize was awarded yesterday (Monday) in Oslo

Mark Twain once said "It's not what you don't know that gets you into trouble, but what you know for sure and that's not the case at all." His words are especially true regarding the climate crisis. Many people are convinced, mistakenly, that the Earth is so big that humans cannot do any real harm to it. This may have been true at some time in the past, but not now. There are so many people on the planet (6.5 billion) and our technology has become so powerful that we can cause real damage to the environment.

What is the most vulnerable part? The atmosphere that surrounds the earth, because it is so thin.

My late friend, Carl Sagan (– American author and astronomer, the translator), used to say: "If you have a sphere covered with a layer of varnish, the thickness of the varnish is roughly the thickness of the atmosphere in relation to the Earth itself."

Earth's atmosphere is so thin that we can change its composition dramatically. Indeed, we have already dangerously increased the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

What exactly are greenhouse gases?

There are gases in our atmosphere that absorb heat, such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. They maintain an average temperature of 15 degrees Celsius on Earth. Without greenhouse gases, the temperature on Earth would drop to approximately 18 degrees below zero. However, due to industry, technology and our modern lifestyle we release too many greenhouse gases, and this is not good news.

Of all the greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2) is usually at the top of the list, as it accounts for 80% of all greenhouse gas emissions. We release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when we burn fossil fuels - oil, natural gas and coal, which are used in cars, homes, factories and power plants. Deforestation and cement production are also processes that release CO2.

In the pre-industrial era, the sun's energy was absorbed by the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in just the right amount. It was a well-balanced system, thanks to which the Earth is sometimes called Goldilocks planet - Goldilocks planet Venus has a thin, toxic atmosphere, and it is not too cold like Mars, which has no atmosphere at all. But when the atmosphere contains too many greenhouse gases, the entire Earth warms.

These diagrams show how this happens: the sun's energy (yellow wavy line) penetrates into the atmosphere. Part of this energy heats the earth's surface and its atmosphere, and is then projected back up towards space in the form of infrared radiation (red wavy line), but part of the infrared radiation is "swallowed" on its way by the greenhouse gases, which are prevented from radiation to return to space.

The problem we face right now is that the atmosphere is filled with an enormous amount of carbon dioxide and other man-made greenhouse gases. They capture a considerable part of the infrared radiation in the atmosphere and do not let it be released into space, as was the case in the past. The Earth's atmosphere and oceans are warming dangerously because of this. This is what is meant when talking about the climate crisis.

The following is a press release published by Tsiblin Vannotza publishing house, which launched the book on the Stimatsky network on Sunday this week

"A Disturbing Truth - The Next Generation", the book by Al Gore, the former Vice President of the United States, in a spectacular album format that presents world-wide images combined with text and charts that illustrate the problematic state of the planet in an accessible way. The book ("Ziblin Publishing House" in collaboration with "Notza" Publishing House) is published in Israel with the scientific advice of Dr. Yohai Carmel, from the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Technion and is based on the documentary film, Oscar winner 2006, created by Gor under the same name. Simultaneously with the release of the book that is being published in Israel in anticipation of Gore's winning the Nobel Prize on 10/12/07, the book's website is up with added value and green - The "disturbed" website which accompanies the publication of the Hebrew edition of Al Gore's book "A Disturbing Truth", also provides tips, films, forums and children's and business corners with a sign of environmental quality in anticipation of Gore winning the Nobel Prize for his activities in the matter.

The Israeli publishers (Civlin and Feather Publishing) decided to deepen their activities in order to introduce awareness of the quality of the environment in Israel and set a personal example: this is the first book in Israel to be printed on environmentally friendly paper, and at the same time as its release, the website "The Disturbed" was established, which, in addition to dealing with the book, brings a gallery of films on Environmental quality, tips for managing a green life and improving the quality of the environment on a daily basis and special tips for business owners who wish to turn their business into a green business. The site presents articles and a dictionary of concepts on the subject, operates a question and answer forum and also lets the public have their say in tips for improving the quality of the environment and a special steam niche called "It bothers me that...". The younger ages were not forgotten either and were entertained in a green and experiential children's corner.