Some of the world's greatest natural treasures are threatened with extinction due to global warming, said an international environmental group, the World Wide Fund for Nature. According the WWFN, These natural treasures include such wonders as the Great Barrier Reef, the Amazon rain forests and the unique ecosystem of the Mexican desert. The environmental group, which is observing the climate change conference in Brussels, issued a list of 10 regions suffering serious damage from global warming, and where it has projects to limit further damage or to help people adapt to new conditions.
"What we are talking about are the faces of the impacts of climate change," said Lara Hansen, WWF's chief scientist on climate issues.
Some damage at the 10 areas listed by WWFN is irreversible, such as shrinking glaciers, Hansen said. Certain types of coral reefs, however, can recover.
The WWF listing also said:
- Six of seven species of Caribbean turtles are endangered as rising sea levels swamp nesting beaches and feeding grounds.
- Some Himalayan glaciers are receding by 33 to 49 feet per year, causing floods now and threatening summer drought in the future.
- Glaciers in the Tibetan plateau that feed China's Yangtze river are also shrinking, adding to water flows now but threatening shortages of water, food and electricity to 450 million people as they reach a critical point.
- The Bay of Bengal is rising and increasingly violent rainstorms in India could inundate coastal islands, destroy mangrove forests and affect India's Sunderbans, home to the largest wild population of Bengal tigers and to 1 million people.
- Scientists predict East African coastal forests and the offshore ecosystem will also be vulnerable to more frequent and intense storms that will damage agriculture, shoreline mangroves and coral reefs.
Cited story.
- Log in to post comments
More like this
