OP Spotlight : The Next Century

"When we heal the earth, we heal ourselves."
David Orr, Environmental Educator

Global Warming :
Within the Next Century

Satellites are already recording the weakening of
the North Atlantic currents which regulate temperatures in the UK and Western Europe.
While temperatures increase in North America
and Asia, regional cooling will take place in Europe.
The imbalance will affect agriculture and the
overall eco-system.

Scientists also believe the melting of glaciers or snow could have a major impact on fish stocks which provides sustenance for millions of people. The problem is not only confined to the northern Atlantic but has implications across the Indian, Pacific, Arabian and southern Atlantic Ocean.

The rise in sea-level has serious implications for coastal communities and industries, islands, river deltas, harbors and the large populations living in coastal areas worldwide causing coastal erosion and increased salinity of bays and estuaries. River basins world wide are vulnerable.

Many of the world's cities are in watersheds downstream from mountains where accelerated melting of glaciers could contribute to severe flooding, especially if the basins have been heavily deforested. The Florida Key, the Everglades, New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Nassau, New York, Bombay, Alexandria, Dakar, Bangkok, Seoul, Tokyo, Manila. That's the short list.

Glacial meltdown brings other problems besides catastrophic floods. Along the length of the Andes, from Colombia to southern Chile , the disappearance of glaciers will soon mean dwindling supplies of hydroelectric power and water, according to Ohio State University. In Bolivia, water supplies for half the country's population are threatened if the glaciers disappear. Over the last three decades, Peruvian glaciers have lost almost a quarter of their area.

Implications for the future

A massive international scientific study, promoted by a series of workshops by the World Conservation Union and published in the scientific journal Nature, claims that unless greenhouse gas emissions causing global climate change are drastically reduced, at least one million species - a quarter of all animals and plants on Earth - may become extinct within the next 50 years.

The World Conservation Union is not alone. A number of studies, most recently a four year study commissioned by the Arctic Council and the International Arctic Science Committee released in November 2004 site the loss of Arctic ice and permafrost will result in the near extinction of a number of species, including the polar bear, a number of seal species, walruses, caribou, reindeer, lemmings, voles, and migratory birds such as snow owls.

The Council's study also states the indigenous people of the Arctic will be forced to relocate from floods, loss of permafrost, coastal erosion from killer storms, building collapse from destruction of permafrost, and loss of food supply.

 

 

 

 

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