AND WE DID IT
What lies ahead for the planet as global warming takes hold? In 2007, a United Nations panel predicted the following drastic changes.
Below are 13 predictions predicted by a large panel of top scientists. I have a few comments in italics under some years. But once again I will start with our shame; we did it, we need to stop being complacent and do what we can now. We need to lesson our damage as much as possible by working together to stop the carnage and teach our offspring all we can about the mess we made before handing the ball to them.
2009: The world population nears 7 billion as more people now live in cities than in rural areas, changing patterns of land use and adding to smog.
2018: Global oil production peaks between 2008 and 2018, triggering a global recession, food shortages and conflicts between nations over dwindling supplies.
2020: Flash floods increase across Europe. Less rainfall reduces agriculture yields by up to 50 percent in some areas. Population reaches 7.6 billion.
2030: Up to 18 percent of the world's coral reefs are lost as a result of the changing climate and other environmental stresses. Warming temperatures will melt the last glaciers in the mountains of equatorial Africa. In low-income parts of the world, diarrhea-related illness is likely to rise by 5 percent.
Methinks all illnesses will rise by at least 10%.
2040: The Arctic Sea is ice-free in the summer, and winter ice depth shrinks drastically. Some say this won't happen until 2060 to 2105.
This can be delayed, maybe stopped, by concentrated action.
2050: Large glaciers shrink by 30 to 70 percent as a quarter of the world's plant and vertebrate animal species face extinction. Human deaths related to heat are expected to rise in Australia and the United States -- but in the United Kingdom, cold-related deaths are expected to rise.
This can be delayed, maybe stopped, by concentrated action.
2070: As warmer, drier conditions lead to more frequent and longer droughts, electricity production for the worlds existing hydropower stations decreases.
2080: Between 1.1 and 3.2 billion people experience water shortages and up to 600 million go hungry.
I think this is understated and will happen sooner.
But in other parts of the world, people living in 2080 will experience the other extreme. Up to 20 percent of the world's population will live in river basins likely to see increased flooding, and up to 100 million people could be affected by coastal flooding. Sea levels around New York City, above, could rise by 3 feet.
I think this is understated and will happen sooner. This does not mention the financial problem created by the flooding of hundreds of square miles of prime high value land. The world economy will go down the toilet and the cloak of civilization will fall to the ground. The real human nature will emerge with a ferocious drive for themselves and their families to survive. The meek will be slaughtered in the millions.
2085: The number of people at risk of dengue fever from climate change increases to 3.5 billion.
2100: A quarter of all species of plants and land animals -- more than a million total -- are driven to extinction.
The food chain is broken; this extinction will cause incredible hardships and destruction. Also this will begin many years sooner. Wars, famine, plague, starvation, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, and such along with many other forms of death will take us back to the Iron Age.
2200: An Earth day is 0.12 milliseconds shorter, as rising temperatures cause oceans to expand toward the poles, speeding up the planet's rotation. (Source: ICPP)
Have a nice day
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