Threat

by Kevin Numerick

Created on: September 02, 2010   Last Updated: September 03, 2010

Global warming is both a threat and an opportunity, but as time continues without any clear action to confront global warming, it has become more of a threat than an opportunity. Unfortunately, after the United States senate failed to pass any legislation to address global warming, it is abundantly clear that the failure was the loss of an unprecedented economic opportunity where millions of jobs could have been created. Additionally, investors such as the Bank of Denmark, who had several billion dollars to invest in a clean energy sector in the United States, has stated that they will take their money elsewhere and invest it into a country that is serious about a clean energy future.

Though I am sure it is not too late to hop on board and fight to be the leaders in the clean energy race, the United States is falling behind. Worse yet, the threat of global warming is intensifying. In 2010, a year on track to be the hottest on record, we’ve had major disasters from weather patterns that fit perfectly into the predictions of a warming world.

Tennessee’s astounding flood was just the beginning. The recent problems in Russia where a quarter of the country was on fire, forcing them to close down their wheat exports to the rest of the world is just another example. Russia is the world’s largest wheat exporter, so shutting down their exports means an increase in wheat prices everywhere. The drought in Russia resulted in unheard of wild fires, devastating most of the country, if not from the fire directly, then the smoke that was being caught in the cities, which caused many deaths. Russians had to wear face masks to even go outside because the smoke was so thick and dangerous.

Asia is being ravaged by downpours of rain and landslides, destroying entire villages. In Pakistan upwards of 20 million people are being affected by the monsoon type rains. Earlier in the year Pakistan had the highest temperatures ever recorded in history too. A double impact of sorts, high temperatures followed by uncanny rain fall are destroying the northern part of the country. The crisis has been stated as worse than the 2010 Haitian earthquake, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, and the 2004 Tsunami combined.

In early August an enormous chunk of ice, 97 square miles, broke off the northwest coast of Greenland, posing potential threats to shipping to Canada. These unequivocal incidents are just examples of what will quite possibly, and at the rate in which the world is moving, it is probable, to become the norm.

Detailing these recent disasters shows just how much of a threat global warming already is. If we continue down the path we currently are, economic and humanitarian disaster is absolutely a real threat for the future.  To continue to examine the threat of global warming one can look at the warming temperatures and the acidification of the oceans.

As the water continues to warm, ice will melt faster accelerating the rate in which the oceans warm, which then increases the speed that ice is melting, which then accelerates the rate in which the world warms. Add in the mix of continued heat trapping gases, such as CO2 and Methane, among others, and the world could significantly warm quite rapidly, perhaps too fast for human civilization to adapt. This threat is particularly more real for third world countries that do not have the money nor the technology to save themselves.

However, technology can only get humans so far. The food we need to eat will be increasingly more difficult to get as the planet warms, due to droughts or flooding or inconsistent weather patterns. Additionally, a significant decline in animal species is quite possible, which will make finding food even more difficult.

Drinking water is also another crucial aspect of global warming that is often overlooked. Stack the decline in fresh drinking water due to melting glaciers from global climate change and the rapidly increasing human population and you have a recipe for disaster. The chances of war over water will significantly increase as water is an absolute must to live.

With each threat there may be opportunity. Measuring the risks of global warming with our current trends shows that the threat far out ways the opportunities at this time. The threat is gaining momentum due to the inaction to confront global warming and climate change. Inaction can no longer be an option. We face clear economic and humanitarian threats and the world must work together to deal with the very real global problem.

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