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(2)Re: [pf] Time Cover Article on Global Warming; end-piece by David MacClement 05 April 2001 23:16 UTC |
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· This _part_2_ is the "box" at the end of the third page of the non-printer-friendly version, which starts at: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,104617,00.html D. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,104617-3,00.html Making the Case That Our Climate Is Changing >From melting glaciers to rising oceans, the signs are everywhere. Global warming can't be blamed for any particular heat wave, drought or deluge, but scientists say a hotter world will make such extreme weather more frequent--and deadly. EXHIBIT A Thinning Ice ANTARCTICA, home to these Adelie penguins, is heating up. The annual melt season has increased up to three weeks in 20 years. MOUNT KILIMANJARO has lost 75% of its ice cap since 1912. The ice on Africa's tallest peak could vanish entirely within 15 years. LAKE BAIKAL in eastern Siberia now freezes for the winter 11 days later than it did a century ago. MONTANA will lose all the glaciers in Glacier National Park by 2070 if their retreat continues at the current rate. VENEZUELAN mountaintops had six glaciers in 1972. Today only two remain. EXHIBIT B Hotter Times Temperatures sizzled from Kansas to New England last May, surprising residents like this Delaware boy with an unusually early heat wave. Crops withered and Dallas temperatures topped 100[degrees]F for 29 days straight in a Texas hot spell that struck during the summer of 1998. India's worst heat shock in 50 years killed more than 2,500 people in May 1998. Cherry blossoms in Washington bloom seven days earlier in the spring than they did in 1970. EXHIBIT C Wild Weather Heavy rains in England and Wales made last fall Britain's wettest three-month period on record. Fires due to dry conditions and record-breaking heat consumed 20% of Samos Island, Greece, last July. Floods along the Ohio River in March 1997 caused 30 deaths and at least $500 million in property damage. Hurricane Floyd brought flooding rains and 130-m.p.h. winds through the Atlantic seaboard in September 1999, killing 77 people and leaving thousands homeless. EXHIBIT D Nature's Pain Pacific salmon populations fell sharply in 1997 and 1998, when local ocean temperatures rose 6[degrees]F. Polar bears in Hudson Bay are having fewer cubs, possibly as a result of earlier spring ice breakup. Coral reefs suffer from the loss of algae that color and nourish them. The process, called bleaching, is caused by warmer oceans. Diseases like dengue fever are expanding their reach northward in the U.S. Butterflies are relocating to higher latitudes. The Edith's Checkerspot butterfly of western North America has moved almost 60 miles north in 100 years. EXHIBIT E Rising Sea Levels Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was 1,500 ft. from the North Carolina shoreline when it was built in 1870. By the late 1980s the ocean had crept to within 160 ft., and the lighthouse had to be moved to avoid collapse. Japanese fortifications were built on Kosrae Island in the southwest Pacific Ocean during World War II to guard against U.S. Marines' invading the beach. Today the fortifications are awash at high tide. Florida farmland up to 1,000 ft. inland from Biscayne Bay is being infiltrated by salt water, rendering the land too toxic for crops. Salt water is also nibbling at the edges of farms on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Brazilian shoreline in the region of Recife receded more than 6 ft. a year from 1915 to 1950 and more than 8 ft. a year from 1985 to 1995. Copyright © 2001 Time Inc. All rights reserved. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - sent to Pos Fut by David. (David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz http://www.geocities.com/davd.geo/index.html#top ************************************************ ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://igc.topica.com/u/?aVxifP.aVx3Cb Or send an email To: positive-futures-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com This email was sent to: archive+pfvs@csf.colorado.edu T O P I C A -- Learn More. Surf Less. Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Topics You Choose. http://www.topica.com/partner/tag01 ==^================================================================
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