Here are the threats: Have your say?
Climate Himalaya
Further to the mail by Mr. Shreeedhar and Mr. Dahal (2nd thematic moderator for this session) , below is a news clip focusing threats to biodiversity from changing climate.
Please share some approaches to tackle the issue.
Best,
Tek
ENVIRONMENT: 'Global Warming Will Decimate Biodiversity'
Julio Godoy
BERLIN, Apr 4 (IPS/IFEJ) - Thousands of plant and animal species are disappearing every month under the impact of global warming, leading environmentalists say.
"About 150 species disappear every day," German environment minister Sigmar Gabriel said at the conference of environment ministers of the eight most industrialised countries (G8) in Potsdam, just outside of Berlin Mar. 16-17.
"Humankind is about to delete nature's biological databank at an unknown speed," Gabriel said at the conference opening.
Gabriel's comments are based on data compiled by scientists from around the world for the new report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to be released in Brussels Apr. 6.
A draft of this report, which is still undergoing revisions, says a steady rise in global temperature of between one and three degrees Celsius would be sufficient to decimate biodiversity, with up to 30 percent of species at risk of extinction.
The report predicts that global warming would endanger millions of people worldwide due to food and water shortages, floods and the spread of tropical diseases.
The document provides a comprehensive analysis of how climate change is affecting natural and human systems. It explores how far adaptation and mitigation can reduce this impact.
The paper presents likely scenarios if global average temperature increases between 1.1 and 6.4 degrees by 2100, compared to 1990 levels.
"Species must adapt to these changes, or move with the shifting climate zones," Wolfgang Lucht, professor of biosphere dynamics and earth systems at the German Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and a contributor to the IPCC report told IPS. "For species which cannot adapt or emigrate, new climate conditions at their habitats could mean extinction."
In the face of global warming, "species adapted to mountainous ecosystems cannot dodge to higher, cooler places, for these environments do not exist," he said. "In the Arctic region, on the North Pole, which is specially suffering from global warming, flora and fauna cannot emigrate further to the north to evade the consequences of climate change."
Lucht said climate scientists have modelled global weather development scenarios for the next 100 years, which show how climate zones could change. This research has been used by the IPCC to formulate its new report.
"We cannot deliver an exact forecast, for a definitive theory of the biosphere does not exist," Lucht said. "But hundreds of research surveys on individual species and ecosystems show that global warming could have lethal consequences in numerous areas of the world."
The IPCC report warns that droughts would especially affect Southern Africa, Latin America and the Mediterranean region in Southern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
"Some climate models forecast a total drying out of the Amazons rainforest, which would really bring about dramatic consequences for biodiversity there," Lucht said. "Such a phenomenon would mean the obliteration of countless species."
Lucht compared these worst case scenarios with the climate change that took place some 55 million years back, at the end of the Paleocene geological epoch. "At the end of this epoch, global temperature rose by five degrees, provoking global mass death."
The IPCC report also warns that in less than 20 years, hundreds of millions of people would run short of water. It adds that tens of millions of others could be threatened by floods, and by the spread of tropical diseases such as malaria.
The IPCC paper will be the second to be published this year. On Feb. 2, the group released its fourth assessment of climate change, titled The Scientific Basis, in which it reaffirmed that human made greenhouse gases emissions, especially provoked by the burning of fossil combustibles, are the main cause of global warming.
The IPCC has warned that rising greenhouse gas emissions and global temperatures would lead to an increase in weather catastrophes such as hotter summers, warmer winters, droughts, melting of glaciers, rising of sea levels, stronger and more frequent hurricanes, and inundations.
The IPCC was created in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organisation "to assess on a comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation."
The IPCC does not carry out research, or monitor climate-related data. It bases its assessment mainly on peer reviewed and published scientific and technical literature.
(*This story is part of a series of features on sustainable development by IPS-Inter Press Service and IFEJ - International Federation of Environmental Journalists.) (END/2007)
vimal khawas
of global warming on the human security of the Himalayas. Enough has
been talked on the impact of global warming on the physical
environment.
Human security essentially means security of the human beings and
entails very important aspects like food security, health, education,
agriculture, energy, livelihood, community security and such other
aspects that concern with the well being of human.
Scientists have been telling us that 30-50 yrs from now majority of
the himalayan glaciers will be vanished. I even read one indian
scientist going a step forward and declaring that by 2030 almost all
the himalayan glaciers will be gone, few days back .
However, we have failed to link the impact of such possible
onslaught(s) on the society, livelihood, economy and polity of the
region. we need to do that.
On 5/29/07, Climate Himalaya <climate...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Experts,
>
> Further to the mail by Mr. Shreeedhar and Mr. Dahal (2nd thematic moderator
> for this session) , below is a news clip focusing threats to biodiversity
> from changing climate.
>
> Please share some approaches to tackle the issue.
>
> Best,
> Tek
>
> ENVIRONMENT: 'Global Warming Will Decimate Biodiversity'
> Julio Godoy
>
> Credit:USFWS
> <http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37214>
> URL: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37214
> *
> BERLIN, Apr 4 (IPS/IFEJ) - Thousands of plant and animal species are
> disappearing every month under the impact of global warming, leading
> environmentalists say. *
--
Associate Fellow
Council for Social Development
New Delhi-110003, India
Tel: 91-11-24615383, 24611700, 24618660, 24692655
narpat s jodha
I fully agree with Bimal Khawas' pleading for enquiry in to human
security and livelihood issues and adaptation options in the face of global
warming and its manifestations. Negative happenings is one part of the
emerging scenarios, but positive thinking /responses is another equally
important part. According to metaphysics, if you focus on largely negative
perspectives, you can go deeper and deeper into it and have ( personally)
facinating / satisfying perceptions on the same. Opposite is the case when
you focus on positive dimensions and perspectives. Given the limitations
of information and knowledge about the whole range of warming issues and
consequences, I also feel for diversifying our approaches and efforts.
To evolve adaptations , it will be essential to identify context
variables ( eg. mountain biodiversity and its components; people's food
systems and their components; water sources and their spatial / temporal
status etc) and then evaluate impacts of warming on them and think of
adaptations accordingly.
In the above context this may also be added that identified adaptation
approaches should have dual (or multiple) goals in view of the persistent
uncertainties and knowledge gaps characterising the warming scenarios. So
that if the perceived impact or adaptation does not take place the
other alternative goal is satisfied ( and pays for the adaptation
initiative).
A Hypothetical Example: : Planting trees is recommended as one of the
small adaptation measure against warming. It has dual goals : if warming
does not happen as predicted or trees prove ineffective to address the
problem, at least other gains from afforestation eg. product supplies, the
poor's livelihood support, some ecological services etc are provided , so
that investment in trees is not wasted.
Look at the alternative actual situation: When I visited the USA first
time in my life in 1973, I was literally shocked by massive, costly nuclear
shelters at several road junctions in Washington D.C and New York and
probably in other cities. In late 1980s when I visited the same areas none
of the shelters were there. Now think of the costs in building ( and
dismantling) the costly structures created as potential adaptation or
defence measures against impacts of likely nuclear attack on American
cities by Russians, which never happened. Afforestation against global
warming and nuclear shelters against atom bombs are not strictly comparable
cases , but they do indicate the need for diversified goals of
costly adaptation options, specially in the poor countries. Thanks.
-Narpat S Jodha
Sr. Research Associate
ICIMOD , Kathmandu