Like a Science Fiction Movie

But many people in Asia are worried, and for good reason. In neighboring Viet Nam, about 4.4% of the country’s land area—or 14,520 square kilometers—could be inundated by 2100 because of sea level rise linked to climate change, according to a study by the International Centre for Environmental Management, an environmental consulting firm based in Queensland, Australia.

Thirty-nine of Viet Nam’s 64 provinces and 6 of its 8 economic regions could be affected, according to the study. A staggering one fifth of the country’s communes may be inundated, mostly in the low-lying Mekong delta region, where more than 12,000 square kilometers may be underwater.

“A 1 meter sea level rise will cause inundation that directly affects almost 6 million people, or 7.3% of the national population,” said Jeremy Carew-Reid, the center’s director. “The most affected province would be Ho Chi Minh City, with more than 660,000 people—and likely many more—affected.”

The Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing reports that glaciers in Xinjiang and Tibet have shrunk by as much as 18% in the last 5 years. The melting, caused by global warming, has increased temperatures in the western portions of the country, the academy reports.

According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a 2OC increase in air temperature in the People's Republic of China (PRC) could decrease rain-fed rice yields by 5–12% in the country.

The PRC is already feeling the impact of climate change in the form of powerful cyclones battering its coastlines. Fourteen of the country’s twenty-one extreme storm surges in the last half century have occurred since 1986.

In India, the fast-melting Himalayan glaciers hold more fresh water than that captured by the polar ice sheets. If these glaciers melt completely, summer and autumn water flow to the Ganges River could be cut by two thirds and leave an estimated 400 million people struggling to find drinking water. The ensuing catastrophe would leave farmers without water to irrigate their crops and hydroelectric power stations without the water needed to power India’s booming economy.

“These scenes are as frightening as a science fiction movie, but they are more terrifying because they are real,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon after the IPCC produced its latest report on climate change.

Across Asia, up to a billion people could be affected by climate change, according to the IPCC. In a region that has seen rapid poverty reduction, many of those gains could be lost as an estimated 130 million people risk facing hunger by 2050 because of the effects of climate change.

Nearly 100 million people in the region will face increased risks of floods from annual ocean level increases of 1–3 millimeters, according to the IPCC. Rainfall will become less predictable, droughts more frequent, and typhoons stronger and more erratic.

“The human drama of climate change will largely be played out in Asia, where over 60% of the world’s population, around 4 billion people, live,” notes the Working Group on Climate Change and Development, a coalition of major poverty and environmental groups in the United Kingdom.

Worldwide, the picture painted by the IPCC of the future is equally grim. The panel warns that up to 30% of the world’s plants and animals could face extinction. Global sea levels could rise by as much as 1.4 meters by 2100, devastating coastal communities worldwide. In Africa, some countries could see farm yields fall by half in the next 12 years.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-02