Oliver Tickell of The Guardian (U.K.) writes today about global warming and what it would take for it to wipe the human species from the planet. And it's very little. 4 degrees Celsisus is all it will take - that's about seven degrees Fahrenheit, and there is an excellent book entitled "Six Degrees" by Mark Lynas that discusses on a broader scale how each degree increase in the global temperature will affect the environment and global ecosystems. According to Mr. Lynas, once we reach six degrees (Fahrenheit) of warming, it's pretty much the end of the world for human beings. That's consistent with what Mr. Tickell describes in the event of a 4C rise in the global temperature: "the end of the living and the beginning of survival for humankind. Or perhaps, the beginning of our extinction."
A big part of the impact is the melting of the polar ice caps, which not only would raise sea levels so high that all of the world's coastal areas would be lost (that includes New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and even Nantucket), it would also result in the release of astounding amounts of methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
When you are talking about the end of human life, four degrees Celsisus does not seem like such a significant amount of warming. In other words, we are too perilously close not to take very drastic actions to stall and hopefully reverse the trend of global warming. If you really want to be scared into taking action, read Mr. Lynas's book.
Here's more on this topic from The Guardian last week.
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1 comment:
Well said.
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