Sorry blog, you've been sadly neglected. Busy schedule really is no excuse, so to make up for it here's a very upbeat entry on the threats and challenges our planet faces in the next 50 years. Seeing the devastation in New Zealand and Japan was the obvious trigger for focusing on this, while I've also picked up on 2 reports recently that highlight some of the key issues for our planet in the future resulting from climate change and the fast-growing global population.
First is a global survey reported in Scientific American under the heading, "Which nations are most at risk from climate change?", that dissolved my cosy notion of England as a green and pleasant land free from any concerns about natural disasters. Of course, the recent disasters in NZ and Japan had nothing to do with climate change, more a reminder of humanity's fragility and its precarious relationship with Gaia, but reading the full report it's clear the UK faces some serious threats. Of most concern is that the UK ranks 11th among the nations most at threat from rising sea levels, with the report estimating that 5.6mn Brits could be vulnerable to serious flooding by 2050. At 5-10% of the UK population, this is one of the highest % among the Top 20 and an inevitable (if no less scary) result of our island nation status.
But the UK is well-resourced and can mitigate the effects of climate change better than many poorer nations, like Bangladesh and the Phillipines, which are both in the Top 10 countries at risk from extreme weather. China and India also both feature near the top here, and will find it tough balancing their focus on economic growth with the need to channel resources at tackling the threats of climate change, especially to agriculture. The article also points to the challenges for the global community, which at the recent Copenhagen talks set up a Green Climate Fund with the World Bank as trustee, designed to distribute $100bn a year by 2020 to help insulate poorer nations from climate change threats and help them promote low-carbon initiatives. Let's just hope, in these straitened times, that all Governments meet their obligations to the fund.
Today, I also came across this report on one of my RSS feeds, a UK report by the Government Office for Science called the Future of Food and Farming. With the global population expected to exceed 9bn by 2050, competition for land, water and energy will rise sharply, while the changing consumption patterns of the middle classes in poorer nations like India and China will put a severe strain on demand for land-intensive farming, such as cattle for meat. In essence, Earth will become ever more Hot, Hungry & Crowded. This major challenge for the global community can only be remedied by finding more sustainable farming methods, including the use of technology in food production - which will mean overturning the mostly irrational opposition in the UK and elsewhere to GM foods and cloning.
So what can we all do? Awareness and a sense of urgency is key, as is putting pressure on government (websites like 38 degrees are especially impressive in this regard, but the old fashioned way of contacting your MP is often just as effective). Supporting charities is also key, and one that survived my recent home budget cull was Fauna & Flora International, supporting conservation work across the globe. Anyway, enough of the earnestness, sometimes just nurturing a love of our little blue-green marble is enough, and what better way than watching some Attenborough:
First is a global survey reported in Scientific American under the heading, "Which nations are most at risk from climate change?", that dissolved my cosy notion of England as a green and pleasant land free from any concerns about natural disasters. Of course, the recent disasters in NZ and Japan had nothing to do with climate change, more a reminder of humanity's fragility and its precarious relationship with Gaia, but reading the full report it's clear the UK faces some serious threats. Of most concern is that the UK ranks 11th among the nations most at threat from rising sea levels, with the report estimating that 5.6mn Brits could be vulnerable to serious flooding by 2050. At 5-10% of the UK population, this is one of the highest % among the Top 20 and an inevitable (if no less scary) result of our island nation status.
But the UK is well-resourced and can mitigate the effects of climate change better than many poorer nations, like Bangladesh and the Phillipines, which are both in the Top 10 countries at risk from extreme weather. China and India also both feature near the top here, and will find it tough balancing their focus on economic growth with the need to channel resources at tackling the threats of climate change, especially to agriculture. The article also points to the challenges for the global community, which at the recent Copenhagen talks set up a Green Climate Fund with the World Bank as trustee, designed to distribute $100bn a year by 2020 to help insulate poorer nations from climate change threats and help them promote low-carbon initiatives. Let's just hope, in these straitened times, that all Governments meet their obligations to the fund.
Today, I also came across this report on one of my RSS feeds, a UK report by the Government Office for Science called the Future of Food and Farming. With the global population expected to exceed 9bn by 2050, competition for land, water and energy will rise sharply, while the changing consumption patterns of the middle classes in poorer nations like India and China will put a severe strain on demand for land-intensive farming, such as cattle for meat. In essence, Earth will become ever more Hot, Hungry & Crowded. This major challenge for the global community can only be remedied by finding more sustainable farming methods, including the use of technology in food production - which will mean overturning the mostly irrational opposition in the UK and elsewhere to GM foods and cloning.
So what can we all do? Awareness and a sense of urgency is key, as is putting pressure on government (websites like 38 degrees are especially impressive in this regard, but the old fashioned way of contacting your MP is often just as effective). Supporting charities is also key, and one that survived my recent home budget cull was Fauna & Flora International, supporting conservation work across the globe. Anyway, enough of the earnestness, sometimes just nurturing a love of our little blue-green marble is enough, and what better way than watching some Attenborough:
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