Climatic events can occasionally be violent and sudden’ish. However the main global events will be gradually but even more devastating. Sea level is creeping up putting nations such as Tuvalu and the Maldives under threat of inundation. The melting of floating ice will not in itself cause a problem but allow glaciers to deliver ice to the sea more quickly. Melting glaciers is a much more dangerous and unpredictable. 2 billion people rely on glaciers indirectly for their water supply. E.Africa has lost 80% of its glaciers; Europe 40%; Andes 40%. Melting and retreating glaciers reduce the albedo effect and lead to greater warming. Permafrost is also melting, releasing methane and destabilising communications and buildings. Highly populated regions such as the valleys of the great rivers sourced in the Himalayas are in danger of fluctuating water supply which would devastate agriculture and thus human survival. These are facts not supposition – the World Meteorological Organisation published its annual State of the Worlds Climate last week.
But – hey, all this is irrelvant to those wanting to make political and financial gains like our right wing political parties and basically most of Americas! According to Ed Milliband the government is set on meeting its green commitments. This makes absolute sense. Until we large scale storage we will always rely on other energy sources during grey windless periods – but the rest of the time we have cheap green energy. A no brainer!