And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1998 10:27:53 -0500 >From: "Ross Wilcock" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: FW: Action on global warming more urgent than ever >To: "Abolition-Caucus-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >-----Original Message----- >Sent: Saturday, December 05, 1998 4:17 AM >Activist Mailing List - http://users.westnet.gr/~cgian/ >/* Written 8:28 PM Nov 15, 1998 by peg:greenleft in >igc:greenleft.news */ Title: Action on global warming more urgent than ever >By Francesca Davis > >Efforts over a decade to stabilise the Earth's rising temperature are on the >verge of collapse, Worldwatch Institute researchers announced in a special >issue of World Watch magazine in October. >Negotiations over the details of the Kyoto protocol, which began in Buenos >Aires on November 2, have become more and more acrimonious. These divisions >may lead to an insufficient number of industrial nations ratifying the >protocol. >The Buenos Aires meeting is seen as a last chance. According to shocking >evidence presented in Buenos Aires by Britain's respected Hadley Centre for >Climate Change, based on calculations by the world's biggest supercomputer, >the world is facing severe consequences of global warming: >* in the next 50 years, climate change will result in millions of people >across the globe suffering from hunger, flooding, water shortage and >disease; >* by 2050, the number of people affected by floods will rise from 5 million >to 100 million; by 2080 it will be 200 million; >* an extra 30 million people will go hungry by 2050 because large sections >of Africa will be too dry to grow crops; >* an extra 170 million people around the world will suffer water shortages; >* malaria will spread across the globe, even threatening Europe. > >The world's food production will be affected by rising temperatures, >particularly impacting on Africa and the United States. >Almost 20% more Africans will be at risk of hunger because of lower crop >yields. Wheat and maize yields will drop by up to 10% in the US wheat belt. >While countries at higher latitudes, like Canada, are likely to have higher >crop yields, globally there will be a food shortfall of 90 million tonnes by >2050. >After 2050, the situation will get worse. Scientists originally hoped that >with greenhouse gas emissions reduced, the world's climate would stabilise >at a warmer temperature in the second half of next century. They thought >that extra plant and tree growth might moderate global warming. >While this will be true until 2050, new findings show that thereafter the >lack of rainfall in key areas will result in northern Brazil's Amazon >rainforest turning into a desert. So might parts of eastern US, southern >Europe and northern Australia. >A decrease in annual rainfall of up to 500 millimetres in some areas, >combined with temperature rises of up to 7 C, will begin the process of >forest dieback. This will release an unexpected surge of 2 billion tonnes of >carbon a year as forests rot or are burned. >This makes the campaign to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions even more >urgent: more extreme climate change could prove fatal for our species. The >Hadley report also raises the question of how to sustain the millions of >people who will suffer dislocation and disease in the immediate future and >who are suffering right now. >Fifty-six countries were hit by severe floods this year, and at least 45 >were stricken by drought. China was particularly hard hit, with the flooding >of the Yangtze River causing US$36 billion in losses, killing 2500 and >displacing 56 million people. Another 21 million people were made homeless >by the flooding of two-thirds of Bangladesh for over a month. >Less violent but just as relentless are rising sea levels in the Pacific. >"If you are living on Nauru, you can actually see and feel the change that >has happened", said Ludwig Keke, a member of the Pacific island delegation >to the Buenos Aires meeting. >Rising sea levels have already drowned some islands, which contain sacred >sites, in the small nations of Kiribati and Tuvalu. Kiribati has already had >to move roads inland on its main island because the Pacific Ocean has eaten >into the shore. >Higher temperatures are also reducing islanders' fresh water supply. "Our >underground wells are always empty, our fish ponds, where we cultivate fish, >are so dry even the fish are dying, almost cooked in their own wells", said >Keke. >Pacific islanders fear for the future of their traditional homes and unique >cultures. In Niue and Palau, the dead lie in caves near the ocean, and >people are discussing moving their ancestors further inland because of the >rising ocean. >The problem of what to do with people in the Pacific islands and Bangladesh >whose homes have literally disappeared under water is posed now, not in the >distant future. It will take the redirection of enormous resources to >address the social effects of climate change, a conclusion those most able >to fund it refuse to accept. >The refusal of the International Monetary Fund to cancel the debts of the >Central American countries hit by hurricane Mitch starkly shows this. It is >also apparent at the faltering negotiation process in Buenos Aires, where >progress towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions was blocked at every turn >by the intransigence of the oil and coal conglomerates and the governments >that represent them. >International insurance companies are scrambling to avoid payouts in climate >change-affected areas, which were estimated at $72 billion in the first >seven months of 1997 alone. >The world's first climate disaster map, compiled by scientists and >researchers at Munich Re, one of the world's largest re-insurance companies, >is currently circulating amongst insurance firms. Insurers are planning to >withdraw insurance cover from areas threatened by sea level rises and >frequent storms, mostly islands in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and the >Pacific, and also where reductions in rainfall such as over the wheat belt >in the US, can be expected. >The map indicates particular countries that are vulnerable to the effects of >climate change. In Britain for example, property will be increasingly >vulnerable to higher wind speeds, and the coastline of the North Sea can >expect flooding from rising sea levels. >Residents of Wollongong, victims of freak flooding this year, have already >had to fight for compensation for destroyed homes. >While the multinationals rush to protect themselves from financial losses, >more and more ordinary people are dying. Climate disruption is leading to >the spread of infectious diseases, according to Paul Epstein of the Harvard >Medical School. >Rising temperatures and more regular rainfall are allowing tropical and >subtropical diseases to move into new areas where people have no immunity to >them. In the last year, tens of thousands of Africans were hit by Rift >Valley fever, and 200 died. >The World Health Organisation has documented "quantitative leaps" in the >incidence of malaria in recent years. The Harvard Medical School estimates >60% of the world's population will get malaria by 2050. Outbreaks of >hantavirus and cholera have also increased, especially due to floods. >Climate instability is also causing record-breaking heat waves. One hundred >Texans died in a summer heat spell this year when temperatures in Dallas >rose above 35 C for weeks on end. An estimated 3000 died in India's most >intense heat wave in 50 years. >Six of the first eight months of this year were the warmest since reliable >records began in the mid-1800s. The immense changes wrought by such >temperature rises are shown in the retreat of the world's glaciers and the >possible collapse of Antarctica's Larsen B ice shelf. >Half the glacier ice in the European Alps has disappeared in this century. >Glaciers in the US and the Patagonian Andes in South America are shrinking >fast. The Alaskan Colombia Glacier is retreating at an average of two >kilometres a year. >The temperature in Alaska, Siberia and north-western Canada has increased by >almost 3 C over the past 30 years. >The pace of climate change is faster than it has ever been. The question >remains whether the human species' social and political organisation can >change quickly enough to keep up. >First posted on the Pegasus conference greenleft.news by Green Left Weekly. >Correspondence and hard copy subsciption inquiries: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >* The Activist * >http://users.westnet.gr/~cgian >This is not about the world that we inherited from our forefathers, >It is about the world we have borrowed from our children !! > &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment ...http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ `"` `"` `"` `"` `"` `"`
