The LA Times reports on what is a clear example of the effects of global warming and climate change:
"Global warming has a taste in this village. It is the taste of salt.
Only a few years ago, water from the local pond was fresh and sweet on Samit Biswas' tongue. It quenched his family's thirst and cleansed their bodies.
But drinking a cupful now leaves a briny flavor in his mouth. Tiny white crystals sprout on Biswas' skin after he bathes and in his clothes after his wife washes them.
The change, international scientists say, is the result of intensified flooding caused by shifting climate patterns. Warmer weather and rising oceans are sending seawater surging up Bangladesh's rivers in greater volume and frequency, experts say, overflowing and seeping into the soil and water supply of thousands of people.
Their lives are being squeezed by distant lands they have seen only on television — America, China and Russia at the top of the list — whose carbon emissions are pushing temperatures and sea levels upward. This month, a long-awaited report by the United Nations said global warming fueled by human activity could lift temperatures by 8 degrees and the ocean's surface by 23 inches by 2100.
Here in southwestern Bangladesh, the bleak future forecast by the report is already becoming reality, bringing misery along with it."
In all likelihood most people will take little notice of what is happening in Bangladesh - a country off most people's radar. Now, just imagine if the same thing were to be happening in a Western country. A different response around the world?
"Global warming has a taste in this village. It is the taste of salt.
Only a few years ago, water from the local pond was fresh and sweet on Samit Biswas' tongue. It quenched his family's thirst and cleansed their bodies.
But drinking a cupful now leaves a briny flavor in his mouth. Tiny white crystals sprout on Biswas' skin after he bathes and in his clothes after his wife washes them.
The change, international scientists say, is the result of intensified flooding caused by shifting climate patterns. Warmer weather and rising oceans are sending seawater surging up Bangladesh's rivers in greater volume and frequency, experts say, overflowing and seeping into the soil and water supply of thousands of people.
Their lives are being squeezed by distant lands they have seen only on television — America, China and Russia at the top of the list — whose carbon emissions are pushing temperatures and sea levels upward. This month, a long-awaited report by the United Nations said global warming fueled by human activity could lift temperatures by 8 degrees and the ocean's surface by 23 inches by 2100.
Here in southwestern Bangladesh, the bleak future forecast by the report is already becoming reality, bringing misery along with it."
In all likelihood most people will take little notice of what is happening in Bangladesh - a country off most people's radar. Now, just imagine if the same thing were to be happening in a Western country. A different response around the world?
Comments