Climate Change and Global Warning

According to a recent Fortune Magazine article, Cloudy with a Chance of Chaos, "a distrubing consenus is emerging among the scientists who study global warming: Climate change may bring more violent swings than they ever though, and it may set in sooner."

It does not take a scientist to see this is indeed the case. Within the last winter weeks, severe weather conditions have gust through Asia, South Asia, and Europe burdening Russia, India, Japan, Georgia, Turkey, Europe and Sacandiavia. Many of these countries and populations are inexperienced and unequipped to cope with the extreme weather; arctic temperatures and hazardous conditions have resulted in hundred of deaths. Many businesses and schools have shutdown, while infrastructure is also severely effected. Not only the cost absorption, but also the lack of natural resources, gas in particular, and consistent energy sources have compounded the matter. Georgia's president, had to excuse himself from the World Economic Forum in Davos to deal with his country's crisis. Although Iran has promised emergency supplies to Georgia, it will take days for the resources to arrive. As a retaliatory message to "GasPutin", Georgia has cut the Russian Embassy's gas supply.

In this last year, the devastation from climate change has been severe:

• Intense heat has set parts of Australia and the US aflame
• Earthquakes have shaken Pakistan and Afghanistan
• Hurricanes devastated Mexico's Cancun and the City of New Orleans in Louisiana; climate change is suspect, as warmer waters provide favorable conditions for hurricanes to survive and gain momentum
• Arctic ice shelf, known as Larsen B, shattered and drifted to sea

RECORD LOWEST TEMPERATURES
Verkhoyansk, Siberia: -68C
Fairbanks, Alaska, US: -54C
Winnipeg, Canada: -44C
Moscow: -32C
Vladivostok: -30C
Narvik, north Norway: -20C
Punta Arenas, Chile: -12C
Calcutta, India: 7C
Mombasa, Kenya: 16C
Recife, Brazil: 18C

Such occurrences serve to bring these issues to the fore; in fact, they are included on the agenda of this week's World Economic Forum. If one were to project, the pending energy crisis--the scarcity of oil, natural gas, and the limitation of electrical energy resources--coupled with the effects of extreme weather caused by global climate changes, along with the rise of international natural disasters and their subsequent devastation and relief efforts, will continue to agitate and strain both national and international economies and as well as the ties between countries--as is the case between Georgia and Russia. These problems demand not only unified thought, but also unified action; they need be confronted at the same level on which they occur. Even if the impact is limited to one country, the effects are felt globally--similar to a stone skimmed across a body of still water.

Moreover, it hardly seems fair for certain countries to have a monopoly over such resources (even if they do rest within the country's borders); they belong to the Earth and should be distributed to her inhabitants based upon need. It is unjust for a human being, out of mere incidental circumstances of birth, to suffer cold and be deprived of energy because they live in a land/country deficient in gas and other natural resources. These are not luxury goods, but necessities. If you feel otherwise, please visit those hapless families and children who are deprived of many opportunities simply because their basic needs go needlessly unmet. For example, the International Energy Agency, could help manage such an enterprise by monitoring need and distribution and compensating the countries in which these resources are mined; this would also help stabilize costs. Many of the countries who are in possession of such resources, be it Venezuela, the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia, etc... and regardless of the degree to which the oil and gas resources are privately or publicly managed or exploited, the people of such countries do not seem to benefit: the money does not trickle down or transform into more substantial public goods and services.

Update [30.01.2006]: For more indepth information on Global Warming, please visit an excellent site,"Global Warning" hosted by BBC News--just discovered it myself.