GLOBAL MELTDOWN
The catalogue of disasters that are happening right now
Across the planet, rising temperatures are taking their toll
CARBON DIOXIDE
New research has found that levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere - the main cause of global warming - are higher than at any time in the past 625,000 years. HOTTEST EVER
This year is expected to be the warmest ever recorded; 1998 was the hottest so far, but the past three years currently occupy the next three places.
DESERTIFICATION
The giant Kalahari desert, already four times the size of Britain, threatens to become larger still, covering farmland in Namibia, Botswana and South Africa.
EXPANDING OCEANS
The level of the world's seas and oceans is rising twice as fast as in the past, as their waters expand in rising temperatures and glaciers melt.
OCEAN EXILES
The people of the Carteret Islands, a scattering of atolls off Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific, have started to leave as their homes succumb to rising seas.
HURRICANES
Hurricane Epsilon - the 14th of the year - is forming in the Atlantic, even though the worst recorded hurricane season by far formally ended on Wednesday.
GLACIER MELT
Greenland glaciers have suddenly started racing towards the sea and melting. Much the same is beginning to happen to glaciers in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
WATER SHORTAGE
Areas such as the western USA, which depend on mountain snows for their water supplies, are running short as less snow falls - and what does fall melts earlier.
DISAPPEARING SPECIES
Sealife and birdlife have declined catastrophically this year along America's north-west Pacific coast, after a similar meltdown in the North Sea.
CORAL REEFS
Corals on the Great Barrier Reef are bleaching out and dying as sea temperatures rise and scientists fear that the whole reef may perish by 2050.
Also in this section
The concept of Contraction and Convergence asks for substantial reductions in carbon emissions of the "developed" (industrialised) nations. Carbon emissions shall be reduced to meet a maximum carbon emission allowance for each person on the earth. It is thought that the earth system as a whole can absorb 4 billion tonnes of carbon per year. With an estimated peak world population at 10 billion people the per capita allowance for carbon emissions is 0.4 tonnes of carbon. this is vastly exceeded by the industrialised countries, whereas developing countries (including China) have not yet reached this figure. The USA emits about 6 tonnes per capita, Canada a little less, UK and many European countries about half as much (3 tonnes). The figures are not too precise, as international transport is not included. Much of third world countries carbon emissions for instance are used to produce the rawmaterials and goods which the developed countries consume.
In order to achieve the required emission cuts much needs to be done. Politicians need to be persuaded to sign international agreements which are based on ideas of Contraction and Convergence, national policies must be formed which will achieve these drastic carbon emission cuts, action needs to be taken on local, community and individual level to put it into place, to make it all real and not just wishful talk or empty political promises.
For the UK, Rising Tide explains why 90% cuts of greenhouse gases are necessary.
(more to come)
Threads: Climate Change