The Inconvenient Truth? - Part 3

This blog has been a quest and a journey for me to discover more about Extreme Poverty and find ways that I can make a difference. The more I read and understand, the more I am becoming passionate about the environment. To be honest my usual response to environmental issues in the past has been, "who cares!".... Well maybe not quite who cares, but you know what I mean......so I guess my attitude has changed quite a bit. One thing I do know is that we can make a huge difference if we all do small things, like looking after the environment, sponsoring children (I have 2 at the moment, thinking of getting another) and speaking out against extreme poverty just to name a few.

Disappearing Forests

The forest that get all the press are the rainforest's - the lush, tropical forests of the Amazon, equatorial Africa and South East Asia. Rainforest's are home to over two-thirds of all species on the planet. There are many different kinds of forests. They all help regulate the earth's temperature and are home to more plant and animal species than any other ecosystem.

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About 45 % of all earth's original forests are gone, mostly cleared during the last century. Invasive species damage the health of the forests, and drier conditions associated with global warming and the resultant fires damage them beyond repair. The destruction of these forests releases immense stores of carbon into the atmosphere - every hectare stores about 500 tonnes of carbon, which the forest would normally convert into oxygen.

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The Indigenous people in those forests join the world's poor at the back of the queue.

The Inconvenient Truth? - Part 2

Going, going, gone: The vanishing planet

I am a little conflicted in my thoughts about global warming. Some of the claims that are being made I find a little hard to believe. On the same token I feel compelled to write about it because firstly I believe that we all need to be more conscious of how we are treating the environment and secondly because if there is an ounce of truth in the claims then global warming will have a huge a huge impact on the amount of people affected by extreme poverty.

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If these claims are true then many parts of the world may be radically affected by global warming. Although they may appear to have little to do with us, some of them will have a powerful impact on food supplies and weather.

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Some Pacific Island states have been referred to as the canary in the coalmine for climate change. The small island states in the pacific Ocean will be the first nations to go under if sea levels rise.
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The worlds coral reefs may be on the way out. Global warming may make the oceans more acidic. Also, an effect known as global bleaching is caused by warmer water the drives out the polyps that keep the coral alive. Apparently up to 10% of coral reefs were destroyed in a warming event in 2001, and one-third of the remainder are in danger according to experts.

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Bye-bye to the coastline as you know it. Its not just the coastline that may disappear. Arable land - that is, land that humans can grow food on - will disappear as well.

The Inconvenient Truth? - Part 1

Well.... this is not something that I intended on writing about on my blog, it's not something that I really thought was connected or relevant. But the more I read, the more I understand that the environment has such a huge impact on extreme poverty.

You can't turn on the TV or open the newspaper without hearing about freak storms, record temperatures, prolonged drought, disastrous floods(I'm surrounded by one now, not here but close by) and other wacky weather. Now most scientists, we are told believe these events are related, and they're caused by changes to the earth's climate. Whats more, it is believed human activity is driving the changes. These changes are called global warming, climate change or climate chaos.

The first people in the firing line as a result of rising sea levels, reduced rainfall and global food shortages are the worlds poor. Many of them already live in marginal environments - the flood plains of Bangladesh or the grazing lands that fringe the Sahara Desert, to name two. These places will be directly affected by global warming. However indirect effects of global warming will include rising food prices, migration and significant economic change.