A Dream for a Better World

If we compare water as the origin of life, wetland can be considered as kidney of the globe. Wetland is a kind of extremely important and irreplaceable ecosystem on the earth. It has various functions such as water maintaining, water purification, flood prevention, run-off regulation, pollution controlling, climate adjustment and landscaping etc. Wetland is not only the natural reservoir on land but also the breeding and wintering place for various wild animals and plants, especially for rare animals. in addition, wetland which is the precious resource also can provide water and food for human beings.
However, as the population has increased rapidly and the economy also has developed fast during recent years, people start to develop more wetland. Consequently, many regions with abundant water have become the places with water shortage and wetland ecosystem has been terribly destroyed. Over a long time, people develop wetland as wasteland for unrestrained exploitation and they have destroyed vast wetland. The largest lake, called Hulun Lake in the northeast part of China is lack of proper treatment for years and the ecosystem nearby has been destroyed by human beings so the water level has reduced and the wetland area has also shriveled. What is worse, the land near to Hulun Lake has terribly suffered from desertification and even the ecosystem of Hulunbeier grassland and Daxinganling forest has also been badly affected. Baiyangding, the largest wetland ecosystem in north part of China, is called the kidney of north part in China. The lake area has decreased from 561.6 square kilometers in the 1950s to 366 square kilometers at present. The capacity of the lake has also reduced and water level is always going down. Therefore, many wild animals and plants have gradually disappeared. In Heilongjiang province of China, wetland area has decreased too much and surface water of 87 billion cubic meters therefore is lost. In recent years, Qinghai Lake has seriously degenerated due to global warming, over-grazing, unreasonable human activities and management shortage etc. the water level does down 12m on average every year.
Actually, the wetland degeneration in China is caused by the following main factors. First, government has not pay much attention to wetland protection and has not taken enough pressures to protect it. In some regions, people can exploit wetland at random. Second, wetland pollution becomes more terrible. Much industrial and agricultural waste water is discharged into wetland and they do harm to wildlife. Third, people over use biological resources and water from the wetland. Fourth, sediment deposits too much and it can cause wetland degeneration. Fifth, the government has not invested enough money to protect wetland.
At present, the government has taken some pressures to protect wetland. First, people should have right value towards wetland protection. Second, the government has issued some laws for wetland protection. Third, the government has listed wetland protection into economic construction. Although the government has taken some pressures, whether they can put the pressures into practice or not is what people concern. We hope that some achievements for wetland protection can be witnessed by all people.

The European Space Agency recently published some latest photos taken by environmental observation satellites and they showed the collision of two Antarctic huge glaciers at the beginning of February. They are Glacier B-9B and Mertz iceberg tongue with 160km in the east part. The second largest glacier named C-28 comes into being after the collision. The size of C-28 is nearly equivalent to that of Luxembourg, with length 78km, width 39km and area 2500k㎡.C-28 means it is the 28^th glacier separated from the part of Antarctic facing to Australia since the year 1976. B9B, with the same size as C-28 ,is also damaged after collision. And B9B is 8600 billion tons and C-28 is 7000 billion tons. Researchers from Antarctic Climate and Ecosystem Cooperative Research Center said that location of the two huge glaciers would affect local current loop and formation of ice and deep seawater.

What will happen in marine environment after the formation of C-28? Claire Parkinson, an expert for sea ice from NASA in USA thinks that C-28, a free floating glacier will influence all living creatures in the area. Predators’ emigration may cause unexpectedly changes for the whole marine ecosystem food chain. For example, the huge glacier will block the way that emperor penguins often go through. Neal Young, another sea-ice expert from Australia said that there was habitat place for emperor penguins about 300km away and seal within the area would not reach open waters. If the area is covered by ice, animals have to immigrate to other places for food. However, there is also a kind of positive idea. The holders think that glaciers play an important role in ecosystem. Scientists from America California University think that a large number of seabirds inhabit on the part of glacier above the sea and there are many phytoplankton, krill and fishes. Therefore, they consider the glacier as floating oasis for marine creatures.

Antarctic glaciers will cause the winter in Europe colder and colder. Scientists have made some researches and found that since the year 1957, backflow speed of cold water in deep-sea has decreased obviously and it decreased faster from 1992. Nowadays, flow rate of the north Atlantic warm current has declined 31% compared with that of 50 years before, which means the temperature in the north Atlantic and continent nearby will go down. That is why it will become colder and colder in winter in Europe. And greenhouse effect is the source for flow rate decreasing of the north Atlantic warm current. It is worth mentioning that glaciers in Atlantic only occupy 9% of the total glaciers on the earth and most are on the Greenland. The rest 90% are on Antarctica and if glacier in Antarctica melts, it will be colder and colder in the winter of Europe.

In the past ten years, ice had not increased too much and glaciers may collapse at any time. Scientists have made a model for glaciers changing observation. If there is difference between the model and reality, we can just think the model with more optimism. Maybe disappearance of Antarctic glaciers comes earlier than expected.

Global warming is not a new problem for human beings any more and all governments pay more and more attention to the problem. If many countries can take pressures to reduce and prevent terrible pollution and then they can suffer less from global warming, so what about Maldives, the beautiful and tourist country? As we all know, Maldives is a country with the lowest coastline in the world and her highest coastline is just about 2.3m. Some people even predict that the country will sink into the sea and it will disappear from the world if the coastline continue rising for decades. Although it sounds like an alarming talk, the condition in Maldives is not optimistic.

Maldives, located in Indian Ocean and south part of Asia, is consisted of 1192 coral islands and people mainly live on the 200 islands of all. Mainland of the country is about 298km2 but with sea area about 100,000km2. Unique geography helps Maldives to be a wonderful tourist site in the world. However, in the past 15 years, erosion and raising of the shoreline means more and more islands will disappear in future. Corals growing becomes slower and slower. Increasing temperature of sea water caused coral bleaching. All these factors impede the protection to island from reef. As a result, waves and storm can corrode the shoreline by a faster speed. That is a vicious circle. Such terrible changes have impacted local people too much. Waves destroyed houses and roads even coconut tress can not escape the misfortune. Groundwater in some islands is seriously polluted and it is not suitable for drinking. One third income of government revenue from tourism is also reduced because parts of islands are abandoned by pollution…

Maldives government also takes some pressures to protect the country. Ironically, their efforts seem to lead the condition worse. Mr. President Mau moon Gayoom in 90s ever set up artificial fences to prevent wave erosion. However, the fences hampered some currents and many coral died because they need enough impact from current. As a result, the natural protective screen disappears gradually. Mr. President Mohamed Nasheed has also brought forward some suggestions, for example, he suggests recover natural fences. But is that enough at present? Or it is too late? And the government also built artificial island to solve the problem although they do not plan to build more because it costs too much. An artificial island called Hulhumale has been built in northwest part of the capital in Maldives and it was open in 2004.

The United States also supplies some support mainly financial support to help Maldives slow down the fading but that can not solve the fundamental problem. Maldives is a fantastic holiday resort for people all over the world and her destiny are decided by the people all over the world. Maybe some polices ought to be made to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide and people should also improve environmental awareness then we can enjoy ourselves in Maldives, the paradise at any time. Maybe the talk that Maldives will disappear is an exaggeration but who knows the future?

Coral reefs aren’t being protected against climate change despite the protective zones set up to do just that, say researchers.  The No-Take Areas (NTAs) set up in the 1960s and 70s were devised when climate change wasn’t the big deal it is now. These zones have had no effect on the health of the coral and are in the wrong place.  The NTAs are often small, and are surrounded by exploited areas.  The researchers looked at different fish populations in areas that were protected, and areas that weren’t. The results showed that irrespective of body size and trophic categorization, NTAs provided no clear benefits for any of the fish groups in terms of their change in response to coral decline.  The coral reefs are currently suffering from diseases due to warmer oceans because of global warming.  The future for coral reefs looks bleak.

In 2006, rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth.  The obliteration of Lohachara Island, in India’s part of the Sundarbans, once home to 10,000 people, is unprecedented. Two-thirds of nearby populated island Ghoramara has also been permanently inundated. Refugees from the vanished Lohachara island and the disappearing Ghoramara island have fled to Sagar, but this island has already lost 7,500 acres of land to the sea. In all, a dozen islands, home to 70,000 people, are in danger of being submerged by the rising seas. 

A group of 1,700 leading scientists called on the US government last June to take the lead in fighting global warming. Citing the unprecedented and unanticipated effects of global warming, the scientists, including six Nobel prizewinners, presented a letter calling for an immediate reduction in US carbon emissions. The letter warns if emissions continue unabated, the nation and the world will face more sea level rise, heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, snowmelt, flood risk, and public health threats, as well as increased rates of plant and animal species extinctions.  The scientists call on the government to reduce emissions on the order of 80% below 2000 levels by 2050; but as a first step, the scientists call for a 15-20% reduction on 2000 levels by 2020.

Global warming is disrupting wildlife and the environment on every continent, according to an unprecedented study that reveals the extent to which climate change is already affecting the world’s ecosystems. Scientists examined published reports dating back to 1970 and found that at least 90% of environmental damage and disruption around the world could be explained by rising temperatures.  Big falls in Antarctic penguin populations, fewer fish in African lakes, shifts in American river flows and earlier flowering and bird migrations in Europe are all likely to be driven by global warming, the study found.  This is the first to formally link some of the most dramatic changes to the world’s wildlife and habitats with human-induced climate change.

The Bush administration is proposing changes that would allow federal agencies to decide for themselves whether subdivisions, dams, highways and other projects have the potential to harm endangered animals and plants. Agencies also could not consider a project’s contribution to global warming in their analysis. Environmentalists complained the proposals would gut protections for endangered animals and plants. John Kostyack, executive director of the National Wildlife Federation, said that if adopted, these changes would seriously weaken the safety net of habitat protections that we have relied upon to protect and recover endangered fish, wildlife and plants for the past 35 years.

James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has co-authored a paper saying that future global warming is likely to turn out worse than most people think. The most recent major report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 projects a temperature rise of three degrees Celsius, plus or minus 1.5 degrees—enough to trigger serious impacts on human life from rising sea level, widespread drought, changes in weather patterns, etc.  But according to Hansen and his nine co-authors, the correct figure is closer to six degrees C.  Although the full impact of this temperature increase will not be felt until the end of this century or even later, Hansen says, the point at which major climate disruption is inevitable is already upon us.  To preserve humanity, CO2 levels will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.

Russian scientists have abandoned their polar research base after the ice it was floating on started melting faster than expected.  The 20 polar researchers and their two dogs climbed on board a research icebreaker and all scientific programs at the station have been stopped.  The research base was set up in September on a five kilometers by three kilometers ice flow which averaged 1.5 thick. By the time the scientists abandoned base on Sunday, it was just 600 meters by 300 meters. This year’s Arctic melt started early than usual and there’s a bit of a trend for less Arctic ice.

Some scientists seem to think so while others are not so sure.  Some scientists have suggested that throwing sulphate particles into the atmosphere could block sunlight and offset global warming. Now research by Simone Tilmes, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, suggests this would mess up the ozone layer.  She states that their research indicates that trying to artificially cool off the planet could have perilous side effects.  Sulfate could cause a drastic increase in the extent of Arctic ozone depletion during the next century and would cause a considerable delay, between 30 and 70 years, in the expected recovery of the Antarctic ozone hole.  While climate change is a major threat, more research is required before society attempts global geoengineering solutions.

At the Global Climate Change Conference recently, scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory presented a plan that could offset 44 gigatonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide.  The study insists that if people whitewashed or painted their roofs white, this action would reflect more solar radiation, thus reducing global warming while saving money on air conditioning bills.  White-topping the roof of an average family home is like sucking 10 tons of carbon dioxide out of the air and it also cuts energy costs by 20 percent.  If major cities in tropical and temperate zones adopted paler roofs and pavements, it could offset 44 gigatonnes’ worth of atmospheric carbon dioxide. That’s more than the world emits in a year. 

The latest global carbon budget numbers are just out.  Most striking is that, despite years of effort, carbon dioxide emissions are increasing at an alarming rate of 3.5% a year– faster than the 2.7% predicted by the IPCC in their worst case scenario, and miles ahead of the 0.9% annual rise in the 1990s.  For the first time, we have hit 10 billion tons of carbon emitted annually.  The other thing to note is that China and India are galumphing their way up the table of biggest carbon dioxide emitters. Ten years ago the top four were: USA, China, Russia, Japan. Today that list reads: China, USA, Russia, India, with India coming up fast to become third place by next year.  China has, since 2002, jumped from being responsible for 14% of the global carbon dioxide emissions, to 21%. At the same time the US has been hovering at around 20%. 

In a long-term study conducted by the Delta Commission under the Dutch government, threats posed by global warming to large parts of the Dutch coastline and river plains are more serious than estimated and countermeasures requiring billions of euros are needed.  The study reports that sea levels are rising even quicker than feared.  By the year 2100, sea levels expect to rise between 65 and 130 centimeters and up by two meters by the year 2200.  Experts recommend that to avert serious flooding within the country, improvements are needed to thousands of kilometers of dykes as well as constructing new barriers to prevent flooding by the sea and both the Rhyne and Meuse Rivers.  Future action should include “intelligent water constructions” that take the natural environment into account.

Not surprisingly, the United States and Western Europe are by far the most responsible for the causes of global warming that we see today.  The following is a breakdown of the amount of CO2 emissions from each region:

USA: 30.3%, Europe: 27.7%, Russia: 13.7%, South East Asia: 12.2%, Japan: 3.7%, South/Central Americas: 3.8%, Middle East: 2.6%, Africa: 2.5%, Australia: 1.1%.

However, China and India will soon surpass the United States in the amount of greenhouse gas emissions due to their mega economies and burgeoning population numbers.  Both countries boast a population in excess of one billion each.  Although there are calls by the United States and Europe for developing nations to regulate and limit greenhouse gas emissions, China and India indigently protest they have the right to develop and advance as much as Europe and America did over the past 40 years.