Wednesday, December 09, 2009

The Consequences Of Global Warming — From A To Z

This was posted on ThinkProgress, today Dec. 9, 2009..........


Global temperature anomaly, 2006
As the nations of the world gather in Copenhagen, the Wonk Room has prepared this alphabetical journey of the impacts of climate change around the globe.
A
East Antarctica, long stable, is now losing ice.
B
Bolivia needs $1 billion over the next seven years to build reservoirs, as the glaciers that hold the nation’s water supply are shrinking rapidly.
C
Leatherback sea turtles that spawn on the beaches of Costa Rica are threatened with extinction by warmer temperatures and rising seas.
D
Denmark joined United States, Norway, Canada, and Russia in identifying climate change as “the most important long-term threat” to future existence of polar bears.
E
The rapidly warming highlands of Ethiopia are becoming too hot for its elite athletes, such as local-born Haile Gebrselassie, to train there.
F
Noting the unprecedented floods this year in Fiji, Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama recently warned that rising sea levels affect not just the islands’ economies, but put into doubt the very existence of his nation.
G
Greece suffered through another storm of extreme wildfires this summer as heat waves and drier conditions increase.
H
Global warming-fueled hurricanes, intense poverty, and widespread deforestation combine to form a gathering storm of disasters for Haiti.
I
The deforested peatlands of Indonesia are drying, disintegrating, and burning.
J
The increasingly early arrival of cherry blossoms in Japan reflects rising global temperatures.
K
The more frequent and severe droughts that are killing off the elephants will likely trigger more conflicts in the arid lands of northeast Kenya.
L
The incidence of wildfires in the cedar forests of Lebanon has increased tremendously over recent years.
M
“If things go business-as-usual, we will not live, we will die,” Maldives President Mohammad Nasheed told the UN General Assembly. “Our country will not exist.”
N
The ministers of Nepal have held the world’s highest cabinet meeting on Mount Everest, as rapidly rising temperatures have reduced snowfall over the mountains and caused glaciers to melt.
O
More than 50 per cent of the population of Oman lives on coastlines vulnerable to rising seas, but its supplies of peridotite may help sequester carbon dioxide emissions.
P
The massive floods that killed hundreds in the Philippines this summer are becoming the norm.
Q
Petroleum-soaked Qatar emits 60 tons of carbon dioxide per person, the most of any nation on earth.
R
Increased floods and malaria outbreaks from global warming, deforestation, and unsanitary conditions have hit Rwanda hard in the past decade.
S
The inhabitants of the Alpine villages of Fieschertal and Fiesch in Switzerland have asked for the Pope to bless their prayers for the restoration of their nation’s glaciers, which shrank by 12 percent over the past decade.
T
Newly discovered, exotic species like the fanged frog of Thailand are especially vulnerable as climate change will further shrink their already restricted habitats.
U
Agriculture in the United States has been ravaged this year by catastrophic droughts in Texas and California, heat waves in Louisiana and Nebraska, storms across the High Plains and the Midwest, floods in North Dakota and Minnesota, and torrential rains in Illinois and Georgia.
V
Speaking from Vatican City on the eve of the Copenhagen conference, Pope Benedict XVI counseled “all people of good will to respect the laws laid down by God in nature and to rediscover the moral dimension of human life.”
W
Warming oceans and sea level rise threaten the coral reefs of the remote Polynesian islands of Wallis and Futuna.
X
The nomadic descendents of Kublai Khan in Inner Mongolia, where Xanadu once stood, are being driven from the grasslands as the Chinese government attempts to fight the region’s desertification.
Y
Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, may be the first capital city in the world to run out of water, as drought and overuse diminish its supply.
Z
On the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, the flow of Victoria Falls is far below average, as drought and high temperatures reduce the Zambezi.
Cross-posted on The Wonk Room and Thinkprogress.....

5 comments:

steve said...

All of that stuff listed is just nebulous and academic.. People aren't going to give a shit until the water is lapping at their heels.. until they have a personal stake in the matter, but by then it will be much too late.

For the past couple of years the Blanchard River has overflowed its banks to inundate one of the most conservative cities in Ohio - Findlay. I think 2 years ago Findlay flooded the worst ever. So the water is lapping at those peoples feet, yet as far as I know, Findlay is as conservative and in denial as much as ever.. Face it- It's a lost cause and hopeless. It's hopeless in as much as convincing people or effecting politics. The only salvation might be some kind of technology or new energy paradigm that is more economic than fossil fuels so that there is a very quick shift to this new energy system.

microdot said...

Steve, Tout ce que vous dites est vrai ... en tant qu'il s'applique à l'Amérique! Mais, dans le reste du monde, le changement climatique est une réalité acceptée. Lorsque la Chine et l'Europe de commencer à appliquer leurs normes pour ce qui est acceptable dans leurs marchés et l'effet se fait sentir dans la capacité d'exportation Amériques .... nous allons voir l'effet causé par la grave blessure .... le déficit déjà aliénés commerce .. .. personne ne veut acheter des voitures américaines, des appareils et cette technologie si elle est conforme aux normes du reste du monde .....
....in effect, America is not in a position any more to have its idiocy tolerated in the world market place.
It might seem hopeless when your up against the likes of the United States Chamber of Commerce and Exxon-Mobil and their payed puppets, but time abd reality is on our side!

An interesting aside....
The "normal" extreme weather conditions of North America create the perfect laboratory to see the effects of climate change amplified.
North America is geologically and geographically like no where else on earth. This has been so instumental in the biological and anthropological history of the continent.
The Mountains and the shape of the continent have created a weather "amplifier" if you will....
That is why you have such extreme variances normally in the climate in the midwest....
Now, with the changes we are experiencing, the fun begins....

microdot said...

Undaunted, the band plays on....

Unknown said...

MediaCurves.com conducted a study among 314 Americans viewing a news clip on the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Results found that the majority (72%) indicated that the United States should increase its efforts to prevent and prepare for climate change. After viewing the video, support for the statement that there is scientific evidence that the average temperature on the earth has been rising over the past few decades rose from 60% to 68% among viewers. More in depth results can be seen at:
http://www.mediacurves.com/Politics/J7672-ClimateChangeCopenhagen/Index.cfm Thanks,
Ben

bathmate said...

I liked it.
Bathmate