Believe it or not, this could be a news headline in the next few years.

We’ve all been hearing about global warming for years now, but recently its effects have become more tangible. From record degree temperatures 20-40 degrees above the norm, to icebergs the size of Manhattan inching closer to melting and the sharp decline in once populous species like the Polar Bear, we are now beginning to feel the effects of what the scientists warned about a decade ago.

According to “To the Lifeboats,” an article published in the November/December issue of Mother Jones, global warming is on its way to displacing millions of people, and creating “climate refugees.” The article quotes Bill Gates as saying “It is interesting how often the impact of climate change is illustrated by talking about the problems the polar bears will face rather than the much greater number of poor people who will die unless significant investments are made to help them.”

While the polar bears are undoubtedly of great concern, the article makes a good point. It states that the places feeling the most heat, in all senses of the word, are areas of Africa, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and many of the small islands of the Pacific that are barely noticeable on a map. Tuvalu, one of the world’s smallest nations with just under 20 square miles of land—none of which is more than 16 feet above sea level—is one of these places. The country has no significant valuable natural resources to generate income, and much of it is comprised of precious coral reefs which are rapidly becoming victims of warmer ocean temperatures.

According to the article, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that countries with low elevations, such as Tuvalu, will be subject to not only endangerment but complete submersion due to rising sea levels and increasingly violent storms. As the tides shift and wind and storm patterns become more violent and erratic, people living in these areas will be forced to flee their land because it will become uninhabitable. As less rain falls on valuable crops in some African countries, the less farmers will be able to produce food, and the less people will have access to food. 

So what can you do as an ordinary citizen to help alleviate the drastic effects of global warming? For one, you can visit http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/, an organization of nearly 1.5 million people taking action and encouraging the government to do the same. You can also encourage your local representatives to vote in favor of bills and actions to address and reduce global warming.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 2:22 pm and is filed under Multidisciplinary Issues.