In
an effort to raise awareness of the need for action to counter climate
change, US paleontologist and best-selling science author Dr. Peter Ward
of the University of Washington has taken a unique approach in his most
recent book, “Flooded Earth: Our Future in a World Without Ice Caps.”
Dr.
Ward, who has extensively researched previous mass extinction events on
Earth, describes through a series of graphic vignettes the dangers that
could befall civilization from sea levels rising as he helps readers
envision their potential Earthly devastation.
He warns that at
current rates of global warming, even if human-made carbon dioxide
emissions were halted today, oceans would still increase a meter by
2050. In fact, over time sea levels could rise by 20 meters or more,
triggering such disasters as massive emergency migrations and epidemics
of tropical disease.
In one of the book’s scenarios, the city of
Miami in Florida, USA is described as having become an island where
fresh water must be collected in swimming pools during hurricanes and
septic systems no longer function due to the overwhelming sea level
rise.
Many thanks, Dr. Peter Ward, for your creative application
of scientific insights to help people understand the consequences of
inaction. Let us all awaken to the need for rapid action toward
sustainable lifestyles to save our precious world. Supreme Master Ching
Hai has often reminded of the need to protect our planet from the
imbalances caused by global warming, as in the following March 2009
videoconference in California, USA.
Supreme Master Ching Hai:
How can we take measures to protect, not from rising sea levels, but
also all the similar consequences of global warming? See? When the sea
level rises, there will be more mosquitoes and diseases.
Being
vegan is our top priority because this provides the most immediate
cooling through actions that can be taken by individuals because we are a
big group on the planet. Carbon removal is also good and acts fairly
quickly, but being veg is something that every single person in the
world can do and immediately.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128290660 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2012083437_br11flooded.html http://objectivistindividualist.blogspot.com/2010/06/peter-ward-flooded-earth.html