Porter-Jinan CATALYST™ Program
Why We Must Change
Global climate change already is having a significant effect on our environment. Animals, plants and water systems are under pressure. About 1/3 of Earth's species face a greater risk of vanishing if global temperatures rise 3.6 degrees above the average of the 1990s. Ecosystems in areas of coral reef, sea ice, tundra and boreal forests are under serious threat. New measurements indicate that the effects of global warming are much worse than previously suspected and could lead to a complete melting of Arctic summer ice in as little as 13 years, a leading climate scientist says. Scientists had previously predicted that the summer sea ice would disappear from the Arctic by 2040. But measurements indicate that the thinning was already approaching 50 percent and that the ice could disappear by 2020. The finding follows a U.N. report that accelerated warming would have catastrophic implications for humans and wildlife, leading to food and water shortages across the planet.
Scientific experts and government delegates have adopted the summary of the second 2007 IPCC climate change report, which indicates that global warming is already happening and the poorest of the poor will be the biggest victims. Desertification, drought and rising sea levels will affect billions of people. Africa, home to the poorest people on the planet, will be hardest hit. Some 75 to 200 million more people there will be exposed to water shortages and crop failure. Small island communities will also be at severe risk. A sea-level rise is expected to increase flooding, storm surges, coastal erosion and other hazards.
Thawing of the Himalayan glaciers that feed rivers throughout Asia is likely to cause massive flooding and avalanches. Higher temperatures will mean heat waves, more severe storms and droughts in North America. Europe will suffer the same. And there also will be a greater risk of flooding as the Alpine glaciers disappear. In Latin America, eastern parts of the Amazon rainforest will turn to savannah. In Australasia, the Great Barrier Reef is predicted to lose much of its coral by as early as 2020. (Kosta, Columbia, CT)
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