Wednesday, January 26

"There is an ecological timebomb ticking away"

Countdown to global catastrophe:Climate change: report warns point of no return may be reached in 10 years, leading to droughts, agricultural failure and water shortages.

The countdown to climate-change catastrophe is spelt out by a task force of senior politicians, business leaders and academics from around the world - and it is remarkably brief. In as little as 10 years, or even less, their report indicates, the point of no return with global warming may have been reached.
...
The report starkly spells out the likely consequences of exceeding the threshold. "Beyond the 2 degrees C level, the risks to human societies and ecosystems grow significantly," it says.

"It is likely, for example, that average-temperature increases larger than this will entail substantial agricultural losses, greatly increased numbers of people at risk of water shortages, and widespread adverse health impacts. [They] could also imperil a very high proportion of the world's coral reefs and cause irreversible damage to important terrestrial ecosystems, including the Amazon rainforest."

It goes on: "Above the 2 degrees level, the risks of abrupt, accelerated, or runaway climate change also increase. The possibilities include reaching climatic tipping points leading, for example, to the loss of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets (which, between them, could raise sea level more than 10 metres over the space of a few centuries), the shutdown of the thermohaline ocean circulation (and, with it, the Gulf Stream), and the transformation of the planet's forests and soils from a net sink of carbon to a net source of carbon."


But Social Security -- now THAT's a CRISIS. How do these bozos expect us to end tyranny all over the world, defeat global terrorism (which includes waging war here and there), phase out Social Security, make the tax cuts for the wealthy permanent, and invest in saving the ecology as well? We can't do EVERYTHING. But there's just no pleasing some people.

1 Comments:

Blogger Sam said...

I take a look at the study, and the Independent's ludicrously hysterical coverage of it, here:

http://ridingsun.blogspot.com/2005/01/shrinking-polar-icecaps-and.html

10:01 AM  

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