by Hugh Manatee Wins » Sun Apr 16, 2006 2:29 pm
Bird flu 'events' will be rehearsals for crisis social controls, much like Katrina being used opportunistically as a FEMA control excercise.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article357783.ece">news.independent.co.uk/en...357783.ece</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>According to computer-modelled predictions for the Government, a three-degree rise in temperatures could put 400 million more people at risk of hunger; leave between one and three billion more people at risk of water stress; cause cereal crop yields to fall by between 20 and 400 million tons; and destroy half the world's nature reserves.<br><br>Environmentalists warned that Greenland's ice cap could melt, raising sea levels by six metres. In Britain, the main threat would come from flooding and "coastal attack" as sea levels rose.<br>....<br>Peter Ainsworth, the shadow Environment Secretary, said: "Sir David King's pessimism on climate change is disturbing. All credible scientific evidence, including his own, clearly implies that a rise in global temperature of over two degrees Centigrade would threaten to unleash rapid and catastrophic climate change, leading to economic and social disaster. The world's poorest people would be hit first and hardest.<br>....<br>WEATHER WORSENS<br><br>Climate increasingly volatile as warming adds energy to weather systems. Events of the past decade foreshadow floods (Bangladesh, India), drought (east Africa), hurricanes and cyclones (Mozambique, Nicaragua and Honduras), forest fires (the Mediterranean, Alaska and Russia) and insect plagues (Canada) that wrack the globe.<br><br>DROUGHT SPREADS<br><br>Africa's Great Lakes shrivel; Malawi's wetlands dry up and acute water shortages threaten fishing and farming livelihoods (40 per cent of its GDP). Worldwide, 3bn people face severe "water stress", with possible water wars in Central Asia and Africa. Mass migration out of North Africa. By 2100, Peru faces drought as its glaciers melt.<br><br>ECOSYSTEMS COLLAPSE<br><br>A fifth of the world's surface has changed significantly, from melting Arctic tundra to vanishing cloud forest in Queensland, Australia (exterminating the native Golden Bowerbird, above). A 3.7C rise would kill or critically endanger 40 per cent of Africa's mammals. Up to 38 per cent of Europe's birds and 20 per cent of its plants are extinct or at risk.<br><br>FAMINE GROWS<br><br>Snow melts earlier in the year so water sources dry before crops finish growing in areas such as the Sierra Nevada and northern India, left. Up to 400 million people at risk of hunger as 400 million tons of cereal crops are lost, with Africa hit worst. Crop yields fall for the first time since the agricultural revolution in Europe, Russia and America.<br><br>What if...<br><br>55 Percentage of the world's population would be exposed to dengue fever - up from 30 per cent in 1990. Insect-borne diseases like dengue and malaria, which already claim 1.3m lives a year, would spread away from the equator towards the poles.<br><br>3bn Population at risk of water shortages as rising temperatures dry surface water and reduce rainfall.<br><br>54 Percentage of mammals that will die in South Africa (worst-case scenario). Up to 40 per cent of the country's birds, 70 per cent of butterflies and 45 per cent of reptiles will also be extinct or critically endangered.<br><br>1/2 Nature reserves that will no longer be able to fulfil their conservation objectives, due to dying species or habitats.<br><br>-10c British temperature drop during wintertime, once global warming reaches the point where it disrupts Atlantic Ocean currents and switches off the Gulf Stream, which currently warms our island. The North Atlantic marine ecosystem could also collapse when half the plankton die. It is not known exactly what the "tipping point" temperature for this is, but 3C would be close. <hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <p></p><i></i>
