None of these reports, by itself, is persuasive; but combined with several hundred others, a picture emerges of a planet that is feeling the effects of warming--many of them bad. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its 1990 report and a series of subsequent reports, has given the basic outlines of what we should expect: greater extremes of weather (more and stronger storms; longer and drier droughts; heavier rains and increased numbers of larger, more costly floods). We should also expect altered patterns of climate and weather--less rainfall in the interior of continents; less snowfall, and so forth. We should also expect the seas to rise a few inches, first because seawater will expand as it gets warmer, and secondly because ice will flow off the land and melt.
Some aspects of global warming are not often discussed. For example, the secondary consequences of heat waves, droughts, and storms. In Papua, New Guinea in 1994, flooding brought the threat of influenza, malaria and dysentery in the affected human population.[8] In the midwestern U.S. in the summer of 1993, some of the people rebuilding their homes after the flood reported that they and their neighbors had come down with meningitis and hepatitis A.[9] That Mississippi flood had other unexpected consequences; according to U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), tremendous quantities of herbicides washed off the land and into the river.[10] At the height of the flood, according to USGS, the river was carrying 12,000 pounds of atrazine per day past Thebes, Illinois, where the agency took measurements. Atrazine is an herbicide that interferes with the endocrine system in wildlife and humans.[11] In addition to atrazine, the river was carrying other agricultural poisons in higher-than-normal concentrations: cyanazine, alachlor, and metolachlor. Furthermore, dozens of "Superfund" chemical waste dumps were flooded in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, adding to the toxic soup carried downstream.[12] At the outflow of the Mississippi in the Gulf of Mexico, a "dead zone" developed over 6000 square miles, a "fishing wasteland" where fish and other sea life could not survive because of sewage, urban runoff, and agricultural poisons.[13]
Unusual weather brings many unexpected side-effects. In Australia in 1993 and again in 1994, mild winter weather extended the breeding season for rodents and insects; then a wet summer and a long, mild autumn increased the food supply for these pests. In July, 1993, mice ravaged crops in south Australia, costing farmers $100 million;[14] in the worst-hit areas, there were more than 100 mice per square meter.[15] (A square meter is approximately a square yard.) Furthermore, the combination of drought, high temperatures, and mice loosened the soils over a large area, allowing winds to strip off 20 to 30 million tons of valuable topsoil and move it out to sea.[16] In 1994, Zimbabwe suffered a plague of rodents and insects because their natural predators (snakes, frogs, small birds and owls) had been killed off by drought.[17] Drought affects human health as well. In New Zealand, as a long drought worsened in 1994, authorities made preparations for managing epidemics of hepatitis A, diarrhea, and cholera.[18]
The World Health Organization (WHO) has suggested that many diseases will increase as the earth's average temperature increases, mainly because disease vectors (carriers) such as mosquitoes and rats will thrive in warmer temperatures. Malaria, schistosomiasis (bilharzia), and dengue fever are likely to increase, says WHO. Elephantiasis, onchocerciasis (river blindness) , African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), yellow fever, and Japanese encephalitis are also likely to increase, says WHO.[19]
The IPCC in 1994 estimated that global warming is likely to have its severest impacts on humans by diminishing agricultural output and making food scarce. Shifting climatic zones northward will increase the arid zones and thus diminish the land available for crops. Rising seas will cover much good farmland, further reducing available croplands. Increased numbers of pests (rodents and insects) will take a greater toll than at present. In sum, said the IPCC. "it is likely to be an enormously difficult task for [hu]mankind, not only to limit climate change to a tolerable level, but also to simultaneously achieve sufficient food production for a still rising world population."[20]
And we face these deteriorating prospects, world-wide, chiefly so that the oil and coal companies can report acceptable quarterly profits to their shareholders.
--Peter Montague
[1] Jeremy Leggett, editor, THE CLIMATE TIME BOMB; SIGNS OF CLIMATE CHANGE FROM THE GREENPEACE DATABASE (Amsterdam, Netherlands: Stichting Greenpeace Council, 1994), pg. 154. Hereafter cited as TIME BOMB. This extraordinarily useful volume is available for $25.00 from: Greenpeace, 1436 U Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009; phone (202) 319-4444. To request information about a semiannual update to this volume, send e-mail to lyn.goldsworthy at green2.dat.de, or send regular mail to The Climate Impacts Unit, Greenpeace International, P.O. Box 800, Surry Hills, New South Wales 2010, Australia. Leggett is one of the scientists who make up the IPCC; see note 2, below.
[2] J.T. Houghton and others, editors, CLIMATE CHANGE. THE IPCC [INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE] SCIENTIFIC ASSESSMENT (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
[3] Quoted in Leggett, cited above, pg. 136.
[4] Jeremy Leggett, THE CLIMATE TIME BOMB...APRIL-JULY, 1994 UPDATE (Surry Hills, New South Wales, Australia: Greenpeace International, 1994) [cited hereafter as UPDATE], pg. 5, quoting H. Beltrami and D. Chapman, "Drilling for a past climate," NEW SCIENTIST Vol. 142, No. 1922 (April 23, 1994), pgs. unknown.
[5] Jeremy Leggett, UPDATE, cited above, pg. 11, citing a Reuters wire service story June 24, 1994.
[6] Leggett, UPDATE, cited above, quoting J. Oerlemans, "Quantifying Global Warming from the Retreat of Glaciers," SCIENCE Vol. 263 (April 8, 1994), pgs. 243-245.
[7] Leggett TIME BOMB, cited above, pg. 93, quoting S. Hastenrath and P.D. Kruss, "The dramatic retreat of Mount Kenya's Glaciers between 1963 and 1987: Greenhouse forcing," ANNALS OF GLACIOLOGY Vol. 16 (1992), pgs. 127-133; and "Greenhouse Indicators in Kenya," NATURE Vol. 355 (1992), pgs. 503-504.
[8] Jeremy Leggett, UPDATE, cited above, pg. 10.
[9] For example, Chris Offutt, "Troubles Rise as the Water Drops," NEW YORK TIMES September 1, 1993, op-ed page.
[10] U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), "One Year Later: Facts and Figures from the 'Flood of '93", press release dated July 8, 1994. Contact: Rebecca Philips at (703) 648-4460 at USGS in Reston, Va.
[11] U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), "Agricultural Chemicals Reported in Mississippi Floodwaters," press release dated August 30, 1993. Contact: Donovan Kelly: (703) 648-4460 at USGS in Reston, Va. And see R. Rajagopal, HERBICIDES IN WATER RESOURCES DURING THE GREAT MIDWESTERN FLOOD OF 1993 (Iowa City, Iowa: Geography Department, University of Iowa, September 9, 1993.). Phone for Professor Rajagopal: (319) 335-0160.
[12] "Midwest toxic sites at risk," ENGINEERING NEWS RECORD August 2, 1993, pg. 11.
[13] Reported in GREENWIRE August 5, 1993, story #6. GREENWIRE is a "daily executive briefing on the environment" published on-line; phone (703) 237-5130.
[14] Jeremy Leggett, UPDATE, cited above, pg. 4.
[15] Jeremy Leggett, TIME BOMB, cited above, pg. 115.
[16] Jeremy Leggett, UPDATE, cited above, pg. 10.
[17] Jeremy Leggett, TIME BOMB, cited above, pg. 156.
[18] Jeremy Leggett, UPDATE, cited above, pg. 11.
[19] Jeremy Leggett, TIME BOMB, cited above, pg. 144, quoting A.J. Michael, PLANETARY OVERLOAD: GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AND THE HEALTH OF THE HUMAN SPECIES (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
[20] Jeremy Leggett, UPDATE, cited above, pg. 8.
Descriptor terms: carbon dioxide; methane; cfcs; greenhouse effect; atmosphere; air pollution; global environmental problems; global warming; fossil fuels; oil; natural gas; coal; storms; floods; insurance; solar energy; drought; hydrogen; automobile industry; steel; glass; rubber; concrete; arctic; antarctic; glaciers; weather; sea level rise; oceans; new guinea; usgs; atrazine; pesticides; herbicides; mississippi river; gulf of mexico; australia; superfund; zimbabwe; new zealand; who; world health organization; agriculture; pests; rodents; insects;
################################################################ Environmental Research Foundation provides this electronic version of RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH WEEKLY free of charge even though it costs our organization considerable time and money to produce it. We would like to continue to provide this service free. You could help by making a tax-deductible contribution (anything you can afford, whether $5.00 or $500.00). Please send your tax-deductible contribution to: Environmental Research Foundation, P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403-7036. Please do not send credit card information via E-mail. For further information about making tax-deductible contributions to E.R.F. by credit card please phone us toll free at 1-888-2RACHEL. --Peter Montague, Editor ################################################################
Louis Proyect
(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)