According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) the age of Homo Sapiens could be under threat ...
... and the age of the hybrid Aqua Homo (aka the deep ones) may soon arise.
They have released yet another report with dire warnings over the impacts of climate change on the salty and frozen areas of the globe. Basically the seas, and the cryosphere are undergoing ever hastening changes .... and not for the good of humanity.
We already had been made aware (well apart from the Trumpites), that the oceans are warming, becoming more acidic and losing their ability to hold oxygen (a necessity for marine life). Also we had been told that ocean-borne Hurricanes are not only becoming more frequent, but more powerful as well. Earlier reports had also identified that rainfall patterns are shifting; frozen tundra is melting; glaciers and ice-sheets are receding or disappearing .... all contributing to sea level rises.
But as if that isn't worrying enough, the latest IPCC report, which took three years to compile, has highlighted that the scale and speed of these changes is accelerating, far faster than reports just a decade ago had predicted. Its prognosis is pretty bleak for the decades around AD 2050 and onwards.
Global ocean warming was first identified in 1970, but had obviously started prior to that ... however from 1993 it was determined that the rate of warming had more than doubled, and similarly the loss of ice in Greenland and Antarctica has trebled in that time period.
The initial impacts of this will be on the 680 million people worldwide who live along low lying coastal regions, and 65 million living on small islands. Others under immediate threat include the 670 million who live in mountain regions, and the 5 million who live in the Arctic ..... around 1.4 billion people in all. But those living in other areas will also be impacted, as firstly 1.4 billion people aren't going to sit around and die, or become homeless, so they will move elsewhere to areas currently occupied. Secondly, as the cryosphere and oceans disappear or become barren, water supplies will dry up across the globe.
Hydo-electric power schemes will be impacted, effecting the ability of people to live in some areas, food production will become harder, and more erratic in a world where rainfall patterns are changing. Some Marine life will die out, or fish stocks move to follow habitat changes, but the oceans will certainly become less productive and produce less food .... what's produced from the sea will be more dangerous as poisonous algae blooms will get in the food chain.
We already face some locked in changes now, so extreme flooding that was once a century, will become annual in some areas, and the El Niño and La Niña events will become twice as likely, adding to the chaos to come. We even face a new phenomena (at least to me), marine heatwaves. These are when sea temperatures soar by several degrees for prolonged periods, and these are already wiping out coral reefs, and mangrove swamps around the globe.
In the worst case scenario in the IPCC report, where climate change remains uninhibited by our efforts, then sea levels will rise by meters in the period up to AD 2300.
In the less likely best case scenario, where climate change is restricted to a rise of just 2°C by AD 2100, some of these impacts will be lessened, and humanity and ecosystems will maybe be able to adapt ... or perhaps maybe not.
The age of Waterworld is maybe just over the horizon ...
 |
| Aqua Homo May Rule The Future. |
... and the age of the hybrid Aqua Homo (aka the deep ones) may soon arise.
They have released yet another report with dire warnings over the impacts of climate change on the salty and frozen areas of the globe. Basically the seas, and the cryosphere are undergoing ever hastening changes .... and not for the good of humanity.
We already had been made aware (well apart from the Trumpites), that the oceans are warming, becoming more acidic and losing their ability to hold oxygen (a necessity for marine life). Also we had been told that ocean-borne Hurricanes are not only becoming more frequent, but more powerful as well. Earlier reports had also identified that rainfall patterns are shifting; frozen tundra is melting; glaciers and ice-sheets are receding or disappearing .... all contributing to sea level rises.
But as if that isn't worrying enough, the latest IPCC report, which took three years to compile, has highlighted that the scale and speed of these changes is accelerating, far faster than reports just a decade ago had predicted. Its prognosis is pretty bleak for the decades around AD 2050 and onwards.
Global ocean warming was first identified in 1970, but had obviously started prior to that ... however from 1993 it was determined that the rate of warming had more than doubled, and similarly the loss of ice in Greenland and Antarctica has trebled in that time period.
The initial impacts of this will be on the 680 million people worldwide who live along low lying coastal regions, and 65 million living on small islands. Others under immediate threat include the 670 million who live in mountain regions, and the 5 million who live in the Arctic ..... around 1.4 billion people in all. But those living in other areas will also be impacted, as firstly 1.4 billion people aren't going to sit around and die, or become homeless, so they will move elsewhere to areas currently occupied. Secondly, as the cryosphere and oceans disappear or become barren, water supplies will dry up across the globe.
Hydo-electric power schemes will be impacted, effecting the ability of people to live in some areas, food production will become harder, and more erratic in a world where rainfall patterns are changing. Some Marine life will die out, or fish stocks move to follow habitat changes, but the oceans will certainly become less productive and produce less food .... what's produced from the sea will be more dangerous as poisonous algae blooms will get in the food chain.
We already face some locked in changes now, so extreme flooding that was once a century, will become annual in some areas, and the El Niño and La Niña events will become twice as likely, adding to the chaos to come. We even face a new phenomena (at least to me), marine heatwaves. These are when sea temperatures soar by several degrees for prolonged periods, and these are already wiping out coral reefs, and mangrove swamps around the globe.
In the worst case scenario in the IPCC report, where climate change remains uninhibited by our efforts, then sea levels will rise by meters in the period up to AD 2300.
 |
| Waterworld - The Future? |
In the less likely best case scenario, where climate change is restricted to a rise of just 2°C by AD 2100, some of these impacts will be lessened, and humanity and ecosystems will maybe be able to adapt ... or perhaps maybe not.
The age of Waterworld is maybe just over the horizon ...
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