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

We are experiencing the peak of oil production at the moment. 75 million barrels of oil are produced every day. All oil producing countries producing as much as they can, with only Saudi Arabia having a small reserve in capacity. The demand for oil globally is still rising, especially with China demanding more and more for its fast growing economy. But new oilfields are harder and harder to find, since there is only so much oil left in the earth.

All this means that we are not running out of oil just yet, but that the rising demand will not be met by the oilproducers, and the result will a very steep increase in oil prices, which will cripple many economies worldwide. Firstly third world economies will be affected, since they have the least means to pay for highly increased oil prices. But the first world big consumers of oil will also be affected, since so much of their economy depends on oil as energy.

So we are facing a coming crisis. This crisis may arive very soon, experts vary in their estimates from about now to the year 2020. It is a well known fact that the oil peak has arrived, it is discussed amongst oil experts and economists, but the politicians are quiet about it, since they think only up to the next election. But it needs to be widely discussed, in order for people to take necessary action and prepare themselves, their communities and economies to develop ways to cope with sudden oil price rises, and to find alternatives for using oil. if this does not happen the crisis will be so much deeper. Let's not forget that this coming crisis will last, since there will be not enough oil to satisfy demands globally.

What we can do here is talk about it, show alternatives, take action in our communities and for ourselves.

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Page last modified on June 10, 2005, at 06:00 PM