Effects of global warming

What is important to us? Our entire planet isnt it!

The balance between energy received and transmitted from our plant is losing balance due to depletion of ozone layer. This is causing an increase in the average temperature of our plant. Global warming is a by product of a bigger, more serious issue: overpopulation.

In the last 200 years of existence of our plant, we are seeing increase in co2 level, ice melting, floods, tsunami, hurricanes and drought. This is mainly due to our ignorance, reluctance to change and industrial growth.

Often when people think of catastrophe what automatically jumps to mind are events that occur in an instant such as earthquakes, tsunamis and landslides. Many people fail to consider categorising global warming as a catastrophe, since the consequences of it take many years to manifest. When the full impact of what has already happened and what is predicted to happen to the earth is properly considered, the reality hits home that global warming will be the mother of all cataclysmic events in history. James Lovelock (creator of the Gaia theory) states The catastrophe threatened by global heating is far worse than any war, famine, or plague in living memory; worse even than global nuclear war. Much of the lush and comfortable Earth we now enjoy is about to become a hot and barren desert.

Leading scientist at NASA, Dr James Hansen, states the world has warmed by approximately 0.8 degrees over the past century, which is much larger than any of the climate changes experienced during the past 10,000 years. This may seem like a small increase in temperature given the huge

variations in temperature we experience daily, but the effect of this overall global warming has been devastating: heat waves, deep oceans warming, the Arctic ice cap melting (three times faster than it had been predicted), sea levels rising (twice as rapidly as had been predicted), species extinctions (three species disappear every hour), increased earthquakes and stronger and longer storm and flood events have occurred (just to name a few changes).

With a two degree increase Greenland will tip into irreversible melt (accelerating sea-level rise and threatening coastal cities around the world), polar bears and other species that require a stable ice platform for survival will become extinct in the Arctic and shrinking snowfields will threaten Californian water supplies. A four degree increase in temperature will lead to a third of Bangladesh being threatened by rising seas and millions will become climate refugees, all glaciers will disappear in the Alps, further reducing water supplies in central Europe. A five degree increase means the earth will become hotter than any other time in 55 million years and methane hydrate will be released from underneath oceans resulting in tsunamis in coastal regions. In total 180 days of the year will be above 35C in South Australia and the Northern Territory. By this stage most of the world will be uninhabitable.

We live in an industrial growth society that worships growth and material possessions. The shopping centre has become the modern church, satisfying our short-term pleasures, keeping many of us numb and cut off from the reality of the world. What is to happen to a planet with a population of 6.5 billion (and exponentially growing) all pursuing a materialistic lifestyle? What kind of impact will this have on nature and all of life? The ice-caps are melting three times faster than scientists have ever predicted before. Entire species, cultures and ecosystems are dying. Sea levels are rising. The environment is experiencing destruction on a scale that confronted no previous generation in recorded history.

People need to experience a dramatic shift in the way they think and feel about the environment, similar to a religious conversion. We need to undergo a conversion from putting money first to the earth first. The cycle of cynicism needs to be broken. We need to connect with nature in every way of life.

We are not passive spectators, but active contestants in the drama of our existence. We need to take responsibility for the kind of life we create for ourselves and our future generations.