Mark Lynas, a British journalist, author and an environmental activist who has focused his studies and findings on climate and climatic change. He has immensely contributed on many United Kingdom newspapers and magazines. Mark was born I Fiji and raised up in Peru, and the UK. He has published numerous books, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Warmer Planet being one of them. He also stated “I think there is a 50-50 chance we can avoid a devastating rise in global temperature (Wilson, 2010, p. 23).
In his book, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, the book outlines the progressive consequences of global warming in different planetary ecologies and ranging from 1 to 6 degrees and the ordinary temperature increase of the globe. As a potential end situation, the release of methane hydrate from the bottommost of the ocean could duplicate the End-Permian leeway event. The book won the Royal Society science book of the year award in 2008 (Powell, 2011, p. 12).
Conclusion from “Six Degrees”
One Degree
First, the Africa’s highest peaks will lose half their glacial area compared to the one of 1987. This will in turn affect the downstream water supply, wildlife and bio-diversity. Secondly, rock-falls will be extensive in the alpine regions because of the loss of alpine permafrost which will in turn have serious consequences for the inhabitants in that region.
Thirdly, there will be an increase in the hurricane activity caused by warmer oceans. For instance, in 2004, the first ever hurricane occurred in Brazil, a sign of climatic change. Hurricanes in 2005 killed approximately 1000 people, left over 1 million homeless and damage worth about $200 billion (Wilson, 2010, p. 25). The rise of temperature by 1 degree also caused the death of coral-falls. Lastly, the rise in 1 degree has resulted in the coming of the Artic “tipping point”.
Two degrees
First, there occurs an alteration of the oceans by the release of the greenhouse gases. By an increase of only 2 degrees of global temperature, some parts of the oceans may render toxic to CaCO3 and hence to one of life’s crucial building blocks, plankton. Secondly, the increase in temperature will cause death of people as it occurred in Europe in 2003 where almost 35,000 people lost their lives. On the other hand, crops and forests will be destroyed.
Thirdly, the rise of the sea level may affect human settlements around the world. This is because; the sea will occupy low lying cities. On the other hand, Monsoon winds would increase in India and Bangladesh causing the migration of the population and looking for other settlements. Crop production will vary, because will crop production increase in one part of the country, it is likely to decrease in another. For instance, Canada, United Kingdom and Miami will benefit from the Hurricane; Africa and South America’s production will suffer a loss.
Three degrees
First, Africa will split into north and south. The north hemisphere will experience heavy rainfall while the south will become drier. Additionally, the southern hemisphere will be beyond human adaptation. Likely, in the southern hemisphere, there will a doubling of wind speeds leading to erosion of the Kalahari Desert. Secondly, there is a likely of the United Kingdom experiencing drier winters. Thirdly, it would become challenging to foretell the occurrence of the Monsoon rains. The Monsoon rainfalls will either fail to occur or cause a distressing flooding.
Fourthly, the Amazon rain forest basin will dry up totally causing a biodiversity and eventually disasters. On the other hand, Brazil, Venezuela and Columbia and East Peru will experience intense air pollution caused by intense heat and smoke that that blots the sun. Additionally, there is a likely occurrence of massive droughts in the sub-tropics and Central America. In New York, things will be different. In contrast to other parts of the world which will experience droughts, New York will be flooded, and the sea level rising to 1 meter in height. Lastly, more than half of the Europe’s plants will extinct. This is because they will not be able to adapt to a sudden climatic change.
Global Warming
Global warming is a situation where the temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere and that of the oceans rises. Scientists are completely persuaded that global warming is triggered by an increase in the concentration of the greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases are produced by human events such as burning of carbon-content objects and deforestation.
The main realistic hope in respect to global warming includes proposed policies in response to global warming. For instance, many countries are members to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is a convention with the main objective of preventing hazardous anthropogenic weather change. The member countries have adopted ways of reducing greenhouses gases to control global warming.
The only factor that humans can tolerate about global warming is the point that it is initiated by greenhouse gases together with the burning of fossil fuel. Fossil fuel includes the gases emitted by cars. Therefore, people can tolerate it because it is involved with the transport industry. On the other hand, people cannot tolerate the fact that, at the long-run, it will cause deaths due to deserts and floods.
There is optimism with global warming. There is hope that with time and technological advancements, the rate of global warming will reduce immensely. First, many countries now have adopted an exercise of planting trees to reduce global warming. Additionally, with the new technology cropping in, many countries will do away with the use of petrol and diesel engine cars.
Reference
Lynas, M (2007). Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet. New York: National
Geographic.
Lynas, M (2010). Why We Greens Keep Getting it Wrong. New York: National Geographical.
Lynas, M. (2012). Without Nuclear, the Battle against Global Warming is as good as lost.
Retrieved March 24 2013 from PsycINFO database.
Lynas, M (2013 January). The impacts of Global Warming. The Daily Nation, pp. A2, A5.
