Present Danger of Global Warming

Deaths Due to Climate Change:
A study, by scientists at the World Health Organization and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, determined that 160,000 people die every year from the effects of global warming.

Increasing Storms and Floods:
Global warming has produced an increase in precipitation during the 20th century, mostly in the form of heavy rainstorms

Weather-Related Natural Disasters:
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Killer Heat Waves:
In June, 2003, 1700 people died during a heat wave that hit India, while 35,000 Europeans died in a heat wave the following August. "High temperatures are likely to become more extreme, and because night temperatures will increase by at least as much as daytime temperatures, heat waves will become more serious," says Dr. Thomas Karl, at the National Climatic Data Centre.

Islands are endangered by Rising Seas:
· In June, 1997, Jacob Nena, president of Micronesia said some of his country's smaller atolls have been abandoned due to rising seas. In addition to rising sea levels, the highly populated atoll of Nuduoro has been victimized by floods due to increasing storm activity, a symptom of global warming.
· The Maldives environmental minister, Abdul Rasheed Hussain, said that his country's tourism industry is threatened by constant erosion of its beaches.
· Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands, where islets are in some places only as wide as the two-lane road that traverses each of them, a single wave often sprays the country from coast to coast. The cost of protecting the capital alone with a seawall would be insurmountable

Coral Bleaching:
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Severe Diseases Caused by Climate Change:

. A recent study by New Zealand doctors, researchers at the Wellington School of Medicine's public health department, said outbreaks of dengue fever in South Pacific islands are directly related to global warming.

Effect on Forests: Beetles
· Alaska's Kenai Peninsula Higher temperatures on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula favour the survival rate of beetle larvae of the spruce bark beetle during the winter months, while speeding their maturing process. As a result, there are greater populations of this beetle that have destroyed about three million acres of white spruce on the peninsula, notwithstanding the spruce's naturally occurring insecticide found in their resin. Kenneth Raffa, an entomologist who has studied the problem, says that the spruce's defences are ineffective against the onslaught of large populations of these beetles.
· British Columbia Infestation VANCOUVER, British Columbia - An epidemic of tree-killing beetles is spreading rapidly through the forests in Canada's largest lumber exporting province, with the deadly insects now found in an area nearly three-quarters the size of Sweden, officials said.
· San Bernardino National Forest As of 2003 the conifers of the San Bernardino National Forest have spent the last four years struggling with drought. During that time the beetle population has grown in numbers, bolstered by drought-weakened trees, their ever-expanding food supply. In October, 2002 about 66,000 of the San Bernardino National Forest’s 652,000 acres was hit by the bark beetle. Today that trend stands at 354,000 acres of dead trees and still increasing.

Threat to Animals:
Caribou-Warmer temperatures and more snow, as a result of more moisture in the atmosphere, are the reasons for the steep decline in caribou numbers in the Canadian Arctic
Moose- Back in January, 1999, 100 Alaskan moose faced starvation because of heavy snowfall in their winter feeding area. The threatened animals were searching for food, belly-deep in snow. The heavy snow, the same as the plight of the caribou, was the result of global warming putting more moisture into the atmosphere.
Gray Wolf and Woodland Buffalo- forest ecosystems in Canada, Alaska and northern Russia are vulnerable to global warming. The species inhabiting these regions - such as the gray wolf and woodland buffalo - may not be able to migrate fast enough to cooler climates to escape the effects of increasing temperatures.
Polar Bear-Temperatures in the Antarctic and Arctic have increased significantly to the point that sea ice has diminished in both regions. In the Arctic this has meant a decreased habitat for the polar bear. Also melting sea ice is leaving greater and greater distances for polar bears to travel in their hunts for food.
Whales-Blue Whale - (Antarctica) Melting polar ice is threatening the main food source for Antarctic blue whales and could lead to their extinction. The whales feed on small sea creatures known as krill, which in turn eat microscopic marine algae. The algae live in sea ice and are released in the summer when the ice melts. Studies had shown that as the temperature has increased in recent decades because of climate change, sea ice had diminished rapidly and food supplies for blue whales were getting scarce. "If this decline continues, it will seriously affect the entire ecosystem and could lead to the extinction of the Antarctic blue whale

Coastal Flooding:
· Global warming is melting ice to the tune of 50 billion tons of water a year from the Greenland ice sheet. A NASA high-tech aerial survey shows that more than 11 cubic miles of ice is disappearing from the ice sheet annually. This is increasing the likelihood of coastal flooding around the world, if this meltdown trend continues.
· The rising sea level has led to salt water encroachment producing the "Ghost forests" of South Florida and Louisiana. Since about 1970, the invading salt water has killed hundreds of acres of southern bald cypress trees in Louisiana coastal parishes and sabal palm in Florida

Wildfires Increasing:

The forests of Canada, Alaska and the former Soviet Union including Siberia are apparently burning like never before, The likely reason: Global warming is drying out northern timber and brush. As a result, lightning bolts spark infernos of colossal extent.

Warming Ocean Waters Kills Plankton - Bottom of Food Chain:

Warming ocean waters off the Seychelles (600 miles NE of Madagascar) are killing extensive areas of plankton. The dead plankton is depleting the surrounding waters of oxygen, harming ocean life nearby. Fish and sea cucumbers are expected to be the first casualties.

Australia may be facing a permanent drought:

Because of an accelerating vortex of winds whipping around the Antarctic, Australia is experiencing a phenomenon that threatens to disrupt rainfall. Spinning faster and tighter, the 100 mile an hour jet stream is pulling climate bands south and dragging rain from Australia into the Southern Ocean. Scientists attribute the phenomenon to global warming and loss of the ozone layer over Antarctica.

http://www.ecobridge.org/content/g_dgr.htm

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