Monday, June 05, 2006

No snow?

Weatherman Michael Fish writes in The Mirror on global warming:

The Earth will continue to warm and, if we don't cut back, temperatures could increase by almost 6 degreeC - more than the change between the last ice age and now. The change will be most noticeable in northern latitudes where permafrost will continue to melt, causing oil pipelines to buckle and houses to sink in the mud. Polar bears will lose their sources of food and may have to move into populated areas to survive, as the Arctic ice melts. In Africa drought and starvation threatens not only man but hippos, gazelles and freshwater fish. The continent, already hot, is destined to get even hotter.
Closer to home, the kind of summer we had in 2003, with record temperatures, may well become the norm by 2060. Many deaths will result. Water shortages could become far worse as summers, insufficiently compensated by wetter winters, get hotter and drier.
Our grandchildren are unlikely to see snow - as we highlighted in The Mirror last month - and many parts of Britain could be under water. We could even find that tropical diseases, such as malaria, become endemic and there will be an increase in skin cancer.
WINTER sports will die out in Scotland. Even in the Alps many resorts will have little or no snow. Those that do could find many more avalanches and little skiing below 6,000ft.
Some holiday destinations, such as the Maldives, could be under water and the coral reefs bleached by high sea temperatures. Already Australia's Great Barrier Reef is severely damaged.
The Mediterranean will suffer from increased pollution, heat stress, forest fires and drought.
In Florida and the Caribbean the sea level rise will drown many of the wetlands and everglades, not helped by more violent hurricanes. The great Amazon forest has already suffered unprecedented drought with many trees dying. If this continues the "lungs of the world" could become
just a gasp.

The rest of the article here.

1 comment:

Abhipraya said...

O boy! Lets move to another planet. Actually that will be a bad idea we'll ruin that too. Lets just pray for a quick end to the mankind. If at all anyone survives lets hope they will take care of the earth better than we have.