Catastrophical bane!
Was watching with predetermined concern this news broadcast about the Amarnath temple. The lingam* of Amarnath in the western Himalayas forms every winter from ice dripping on the floor of a cave and freezing like a stalagmite.The report said the entire lingam had melted away leaving the devotees that visit the famous pilgrimage each year in utter despair. There was this hush as everyone watched abated hanging to every word that was spelling disaster.
There were a few people….authorities in meteorology & disaster management who spoke about global warming & its effects in different places. How much time we had on hand to rectify the damage done coz the change in global climate is being described as the greatest current threat to humanity.
The fierce debate over how we should meet that threat is constantly stoked by researchers' efforts to understand more about how our climate works, and how exactly we are altering it. Attention is now turning to the developing world, where those least equipped to handle it will bear the brunt of global warming. The people most vulnerable will be those who live at or near sea level, often crowded into cities along the coast. As drought, disease and extreme weather events become more frequent around the world, threatening the lives and livelihoods of countless more. No one will escape the impacts of a warming planet.
What's more, many of the effects of climate change are already evident in physical and biological systems. Regional climate changes are affecting natural systems on every continent, with the Arctic, sub-Saharan Africa, and Asian mega-deltas among the worst affected. Incidentally the cost of fighting global warming may not be as high as feared by many nations.
So much has been talked about species getting extinct, the un-denying change in season & temperatures & its effects. Let’s try & understand why we are in this situation in the first place.
As man started exploring his intelligence & inventing new things using science as the base of all knowledge & reasoning, he started looking for answers regarding climatic conditions, the behaviour of the stars & related explanations that predicted certain happenings in nature.
With knowledge came power & the need to establish ones territory coz don’t forget…deep down we are all endemic individuals camouflaged in sleek clothing. This era has been the most devastating of all in my opinion fundamentally wise. By this time most of the important discoveries were made (within a couple of centuries) & we were all busy enjoying the fruits of these inventions.
Every action has a resultant reaction & this one has huge complications.The last 70 years have been a time of unknowingly saturating & abusing most of the resources we had so dotingly built & prided ourselves over. The ozone layer stands damaged in varying degrees in different parts of the stratosphere with the maximum damage reported above the Antarctica. This would mean a direct assault from the sun’s ultraviolet rays that would be much harsher & therefore bring about uncanny natural calamities with it. It’s like a time bomb ticking away!
The Arctic ice thickness has decreased 40 percent since the 1960s increasing at a deathly speed every year. The average polar ices are melting at 9% a year. The current pace of sea-level rise is three times the historical rate and appears to be accelerating. This is unleashing unwarranted fury in places that never saw such calamitous situations ever before. The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.
The changing weather is in turn having an adverse effect in the whole biota of the place that is not used to such extreme exposures which is leading to extinction of quite a few species of plant & animals. Some of which we are aware of & are making conscious efforts to preserve. Entire populations of fish are at a risk of getting extinct due to the rise in water temperatures which affects their procreation cycle.
There are other species yet to be discovered in the remotest of caves & tropical forests that might be fast disappearing without our knowledge. In terms of health, vector-borne diseases such as tick-borne encephalitis and dengue fever are expected to increase as insects mutate & expand their range.
Carbon dioxide levels today are nearly 30 percent higher than they were prior to the start of the Industrial Revolution. The global carbon assessments have suggested that the mid-latitude forests are the primary places where carbon sequestration has been enhanced because of increasing anthropogenic Nitrogen deposition. Aerosols in the atmosphere from natural sources like volcanoes, natural fires & dust storms is contributing to pollution making the air murkier.
The change in use of land is the dominant component of global change in terms of its impact on the terrestrial ecosystem. The conversion of native land (forested) to agriculture profoundly alters land cover biota & biogeochemical cycles. Plant production & microbial activity at high altitudes that enjoy low temperatures are getting affected the most due to the rise in temperature.
Human activity increases the greenhouse effect primarily through release of carbon dioxide, but human influences on other greenhouse gases can also be important. Some of the main sources of greenhouse gases due to human activity include burning of fossil fuels like coal & petroleum and deforestation leading to higher carbon dioxide concentrations. Livestock and agricultural activities, including the use of fertilizers also lead to higher nitrous oxide concentrations. Wetland changes, pipeline losses, and covered vented landfill emissions leading to higher methane atmospheric concentrations.
Many of the newer style fully vented septic systems that enhance and target the fermentation process also are major sources of atmospheric methane. Use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in refrigeration systems, and use of CFCs and halons in the fire suppression systems and manufacturing processes are contributing factors. Greenhouse gas emissions from industry, transportation and agriculture are very likely the main cause of recently observed global warming.
Until now we have been talking about unknowingly assisting abuse of nature. Adaptation is the key to the next few decades. Even if no more carbon is put into the atmosphere, average warming of 0.6 °C can still be expected over the rest of the century. However, as we extend to the longer term — the next ten or fifteen decades — the only solution for that is to do mitigation now. If we fail to adhere we will suffer. We need to cut fossil fuel use in the developed world by 90% to stop dangerous climate change.
I wind shop leaving the big question of what is our contribution to setting the record straight. Knowingly or unknowingly the damage has been done which needs to be rectified by willingness to change our lifestyles.
* Lingam – The lingam is the most prevalent icon of lord Shiva that the Hindu’s worship.
A few points in this article has been subscribed from http://www.nature.com/
GreenPeace India
Copyright © BuntysBanter 2007
There were a few people….authorities in meteorology & disaster management who spoke about global warming & its effects in different places. How much time we had on hand to rectify the damage done coz the change in global climate is being described as the greatest current threat to humanity.
The fierce debate over how we should meet that threat is constantly stoked by researchers' efforts to understand more about how our climate works, and how exactly we are altering it. Attention is now turning to the developing world, where those least equipped to handle it will bear the brunt of global warming. The people most vulnerable will be those who live at or near sea level, often crowded into cities along the coast. As drought, disease and extreme weather events become more frequent around the world, threatening the lives and livelihoods of countless more. No one will escape the impacts of a warming planet.
What's more, many of the effects of climate change are already evident in physical and biological systems. Regional climate changes are affecting natural systems on every continent, with the Arctic, sub-Saharan Africa, and Asian mega-deltas among the worst affected. Incidentally the cost of fighting global warming may not be as high as feared by many nations.
So much has been talked about species getting extinct, the un-denying change in season & temperatures & its effects. Let’s try & understand why we are in this situation in the first place.
As man started exploring his intelligence & inventing new things using science as the base of all knowledge & reasoning, he started looking for answers regarding climatic conditions, the behaviour of the stars & related explanations that predicted certain happenings in nature.
With knowledge came power & the need to establish ones territory coz don’t forget…deep down we are all endemic individuals camouflaged in sleek clothing. This era has been the most devastating of all in my opinion fundamentally wise. By this time most of the important discoveries were made (within a couple of centuries) & we were all busy enjoying the fruits of these inventions.
Every action has a resultant reaction & this one has huge complications.The last 70 years have been a time of unknowingly saturating & abusing most of the resources we had so dotingly built & prided ourselves over. The ozone layer stands damaged in varying degrees in different parts of the stratosphere with the maximum damage reported above the Antarctica. This would mean a direct assault from the sun’s ultraviolet rays that would be much harsher & therefore bring about uncanny natural calamities with it. It’s like a time bomb ticking away!
The Arctic ice thickness has decreased 40 percent since the 1960s increasing at a deathly speed every year. The average polar ices are melting at 9% a year. The current pace of sea-level rise is three times the historical rate and appears to be accelerating. This is unleashing unwarranted fury in places that never saw such calamitous situations ever before. The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.
The changing weather is in turn having an adverse effect in the whole biota of the place that is not used to such extreme exposures which is leading to extinction of quite a few species of plant & animals. Some of which we are aware of & are making conscious efforts to preserve. Entire populations of fish are at a risk of getting extinct due to the rise in water temperatures which affects their procreation cycle.
There are other species yet to be discovered in the remotest of caves & tropical forests that might be fast disappearing without our knowledge. In terms of health, vector-borne diseases such as tick-borne encephalitis and dengue fever are expected to increase as insects mutate & expand their range.
Carbon dioxide levels today are nearly 30 percent higher than they were prior to the start of the Industrial Revolution. The global carbon assessments have suggested that the mid-latitude forests are the primary places where carbon sequestration has been enhanced because of increasing anthropogenic Nitrogen deposition. Aerosols in the atmosphere from natural sources like volcanoes, natural fires & dust storms is contributing to pollution making the air murkier.
The change in use of land is the dominant component of global change in terms of its impact on the terrestrial ecosystem. The conversion of native land (forested) to agriculture profoundly alters land cover biota & biogeochemical cycles. Plant production & microbial activity at high altitudes that enjoy low temperatures are getting affected the most due to the rise in temperature.
Human activity increases the greenhouse effect primarily through release of carbon dioxide, but human influences on other greenhouse gases can also be important. Some of the main sources of greenhouse gases due to human activity include burning of fossil fuels like coal & petroleum and deforestation leading to higher carbon dioxide concentrations. Livestock and agricultural activities, including the use of fertilizers also lead to higher nitrous oxide concentrations. Wetland changes, pipeline losses, and covered vented landfill emissions leading to higher methane atmospheric concentrations.
Many of the newer style fully vented septic systems that enhance and target the fermentation process also are major sources of atmospheric methane. Use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in refrigeration systems, and use of CFCs and halons in the fire suppression systems and manufacturing processes are contributing factors. Greenhouse gas emissions from industry, transportation and agriculture are very likely the main cause of recently observed global warming.
Until now we have been talking about unknowingly assisting abuse of nature. Adaptation is the key to the next few decades. Even if no more carbon is put into the atmosphere, average warming of 0.6 °C can still be expected over the rest of the century. However, as we extend to the longer term — the next ten or fifteen decades — the only solution for that is to do mitigation now. If we fail to adhere we will suffer. We need to cut fossil fuel use in the developed world by 90% to stop dangerous climate change.
I wind shop leaving the big question of what is our contribution to setting the record straight. Knowingly or unknowingly the damage has been done which needs to be rectified by willingness to change our lifestyles.
* Lingam – The lingam is the most prevalent icon of lord Shiva that the Hindu’s worship.
A few points in this article has been subscribed from http://www.nature.com/
GreenPeace India
Copyright © BuntysBanter 2007
posted by Bunty's Banter at 9:47 AM
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