Climate change and flooding, why should I care?

The answer is simple, because it is you who is going to be directly affected.

A very real threat

Severe flooding is a major issue posed to several countries with coastal regions. With sea levels rising 3.1mm from 1993 to 2003 and rates increasing sharply many low lying or exposed parts of the world, face a credible danger of being submerged permanently. This manmade issue poses the most harmful threat of global warming to our planet due to our booming population and declining resources, losing further land could lead to catastrophic social, economic and environmental issues.

Countries affected

·         Asia – Both Bangladesh and India have densely populated low lying land; these are most under threat to rising sea levels

·         Africa- Increasing drought will enhance food shortage 

·         Australia – Rising temperatures are leading to more frequent bush fires, the country could also lose land to the sea

·         Pacific and Indonesia – increased risk of tsunamis and storm surges, coastal-based communities faced with mass destruction.  Settlements such as Kiribati, Tuvalu and Marshall Islands are predicted to become submerged completely.

·         Europe – increased flooding due to higher rates of snow-cap melting, leading to increased river discharge resulting in flooding

·         Latin America – Increasing dry weather disrupting ecosystems and weather systems

·         North America – Threat of hurricanes now yearly, hurricane Katrina an example of how rising sea levels can result in more destructive storm surges

Effects on us

·       Loss of land leading to densely populated areas, lower quality of life

·       Less land for farming and plantations, further deforestation increasing CO2 emissions

·       Polluted fresh water, could lead to a disease outbreak

·       High rates of rural to urban migration, larger strain on resources and infrastructure

·       Increased storm surges and higher risk of tsunamis

·       Loss of SSSI sites and world heritage sites

·       Mass pollution in affected areas, climates change resulting in species being unable to adapt and dying, hugely disrupting food chains

·       Warmer oceans, marine ecosystems disrupted

·       Countries debt rises to unsustainable levels

Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto protocol was a treaty adopted on 11 December 1997 in Kyoto Japan. The treaty was agreed during a world summit meeting. The objective of the Kyoto climate change conference was to establish a legally binding international agreement, whereby all the participating nations commit themselves to tackling the issue of global warming and greenhouse gas emissions. The target agreed upon was an average reduction of 5.2% from 1990 levels by the year 2012. The protocol has three mechanisms for each member to agree to.

The Kyoto mechanisms are:

•Emissions trading – known as “the carbon market" 

•Clean development mechanism (CDM)

•Joint implementation

As of August 2011, 191 states have signed and ratified the protocol, the only remaining high profile country to sign is the United States.

Conclusions

Over the last fifty years climate change and global warming have become hot topics. As the threat of climate change becomes increasingly real and evident.  As more and more natural disasters are, being labelled as effects of climate change it is clear strategies and action plans must be implemented. Programs like the Kyoto Protocol are effective but cannot reverse the damage already done. The question is can our planet overcome these adverse effects with an ever increasing population and declining resources.