IIPM PUBLICATION
It’s
time to recite Coleridge “Water water everywhere, not a drop to drink….” And surely if the trend of global warming & melting of glaciers continue, ocean levels will rise and swallow up entire nations & cultures. Besides other threats of global warming, the one attracting high concern is thermal expansion of the oceans – a result of water molecules expanding in warmer temperatures, increased precipitation and melting of mountain glaciers which leads to high sea-levels. The sea-levels have been rising tremendously with a rise of over 200 meters since the end of the last ice age, and astonishingly in 20th century alone, sea levels rose 0.17 meters with predictions for the next century rise ranging from 0.18 to 0.59 metres. The brunt will be borne by low lying areas, which would be entirely submerged such as Nile Delta, Maldives and Bangladesh which will suffer great damage if and when sea level rises, as it has an extensive coastline and lies between 2 major rivers. Shrinking coastlines are being observed across the world. The recent spate of hurricanes in the US has also been linked to the phenomenon. Warmer oceans are now being linked to increasing severity of storms. In the past, peak melting has been taking place in Greenland and Arctic, where ice is now half as thick as it was in 1950. And sudden acceleration in the past few years means the catastrophes may not be as far as they seemd to be, earlier. Today it’s polar bears, penguins and seals that are losing their natural habitats and dying out. If this continues, human beings would be the next in line to suffer the same fate.For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative
No comments:
Post a Comment