Water-Grimm Prognosis: UN Food & Agricultural Org (FAO) 14 February 2007, Rome -- By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world’s population could be living under water stress conditions, FAO said today. Water use has grown at more than twice the rate of population increase over the last century . . . Worldwide, 1.1 billion people do not have access to adequate clean water to meet their basic daily needs and 2.6 billion do not have proper sanitation . . .
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2007/1000494/index.html
Contact: Teresa Buerkle Information Officer, FAO  teresamarie.buerkle@fao.org

Exploitation
Overfishing in the North Sea now threatens the entire marine ecosystem and since the 1990s has placed virtually all commercial fish species, including cod, hake, herring, haddock, mackerel, plaice, saithe, and whiting at dangerously low levels and at risk of stock collapse.
http://archive.greenpeace.org/comms/cbio/crisis1.html
Situated off the southeast coast of Nova Scotia, the Grand Banks are one of the world's largest and richest resource areas, renowned for both its valuable fish stocks and petroleum reserves. However, [due to over fishing] all major cod and flounder fisheries on the Grand Banks were closed and many other fish species such as turbot and ocean perch have had their catch levels sharply restricted.  
 http://www.gov.nf.ca/exec/premier/gbanks.htm
"Roughly a quarter of the animal protein food intake of the peoples of the world comes from ocean and fresh waters of the world" (Bardach pers. comm. 1991). However, there is a limit to the ocean's ability to produce biomass.  . . .   driftnet fisheries have caused an overall decrease, not an increase in the total amount of protein harvested. The total tonnage of salmon harvested in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans decreased substantially, with decreasing population numbers and decreasing body weight both attributable to the high seas harvesting of juvenile, low weight individuals. The North Pacific albacore stocks were decimated, the albacore stocks in the South Pacific were severely overfished, and the Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean stocks may suffer a similar fate. Other stocks, such as pelagic armorhead and Pacific pomfret, were heavily exploited by driftnets without anyone reaping the benefits.
http://www.earthtrust.org/dnpaper/impact2.html

Driftnets have been commonly used by many countries in coastalwaters.
However, Japanese driftnet fishing began to draw America's attention in the mid-1980s when Japan and 
other Asian countries began to send large fleets to the North Pacific Ocean to catch mainly tuna and 
squid. Those fishing boats were blamed not only for the indiscriminate destruction of sea lives 
but also for the poaching of North Pacific salmon. . . . 
Driftnets usually have a length of as long as 60 kilometers and indiscriminately snare not only target 
species but also a variety of marine mammals, fish species, sea birds, sea turtles, etc. Even 
dolphins and young whales fall a victim to them. That is why those nets are called "walls of death." 
According to the 1990 observer report on Japan's squid driftnet fishery, "in addition to the 7.9 million 
squid caught by these 74 [Japanese] vessels, 3.2 million pomret, over 253,000 tuna, 82,000 blue 
sharks, over 30,000 sea birds, nearly 10,000 salmonids were entangled in squid driftnets."
Driftnet fishery inflicted not only an ecological damage to oceans but also economic damage to coastal 
regions. As noted above, agreat amount of tuna and salmon was intercepted by Japanese fleets 
on the high seas, though the target of those vessels was only squid. A large majority of [salmon] have 
"mother rivers" in the U.S. or Canada where local governments and the private sectors invested in 
restoring or enhancing salmon and other fish resources.
http://www.american.edu/projects/mandala/TED/driftjap.htm

Pollution

More than 70 percent of China's rivers and lakes are polluted, while the underground water supplies in 90 percent of Chinese cities are contaminated, according to government reports. Mar. 19,2006
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060319/sc_afp/environmentwaterchina

     Large and small craft significantly pollute both inland and coastal waters by dumping their untreated sewage. Oil spilled accidentally or flushed from tankers and offshore rigs (900,000 metric tons annually) sullies beaches and smothers bird, fish, and plant life.
     Both DDT, which has been banned in the United States since 1972, and PCBs are manufactured in many parts of the world and are now widespread in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Tarry oil residues are encountered throughout the Atlantic, as are styrofoam and other plastic rubbish. Plastic bits litter sections of the Pacific as far north as Amchitka Island near Alaska. Garbage, solid industrial wastes, and sludge formed in sewage treatment, all commonly dumped into oceans, are other marine pollutants found worldwide, especially along coastal areas.
http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Sciences/Earthscience/Oceanography/OceanPollution/OceanPollution/OceanPollution.htm

Mercury accumulates most efficiently in the aquatic food web. Predatory organisms at the top of the food web generally have higher mercury concentrations. Nearly all of the mercury that accumulates in fish tissue is methylmercury. . . . Epidemics of mercury poisoning following high-dose exposures to methylmercury in Japan and Iraq demonstrated that neurotoxicity is the health effect of greatest concern when methylmercury exposure occurs to the developing fetus. Dietary methylmercury is almost completely absorbed into the blood and distributed to all tissues including the brain; it also readily passes through the placenta to the fetus and fetal brain. . . . Mercury contamination has been documented in the endangered Florida panther and the wood stork, as well as populations of loons, eagles, and furbearers such as mink and otter. . . . Concentrations of mercury in the tissues of wildlife species have been reported at levels associated with adverse health effects in laboratory studies with the same species.
 http://www.epa.gov/oar/mercury.html   Click on "short overview"


TCE(trichloroethylene) is a metal degreaser linked to increased risk of leukemia & liver cancer. The maximum safe level is 5 ppb (parts per billion). In communities having higher concentrations, leukemia levels in girls younger than 5 years of age were 4 times the expected level, and the non-Hodgkins lymphoma rate in adults was 3 times the expected level.  One Pennsylvania well tested at 188 ppb. In 1994 32% of wells tested in Chester County, PA were contaminated with volatile organic chemicals, such as gasoline additives & TCE. 14% exceeded the maximum safe TCE levels.
Dawn Fallik, Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 17, 2004

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Wetlands

In the 1600's, over 220 million acres of wetlands existed in the lower 48 states (Dahl and Johnson 1991). Since then, extensive losses have occurred, with many of the original wetlands drained and converted to farmland. Today, less than half of the nation's original wetlands remain. Activities resulting in wetlands loss and degradation include: agriculture; commercial and residential development; road construction; impoundment; resource extraction; industrial siting, processes, and waste; dredge dispo sal; silviculture; and mosquito control (USEPA 1994b; USEPA 1993a). The primary pollutants causing degradation are sediment, nutrients, pesticides, salinity, heavy metals, weeds, low dissolved oxygen, pH, and selenium (USEPA 1994).
    . . .   Although wetlands can improve watershed water quality, their capacity to process pollutants without becoming degraded can be exceeded. Many wetlands have suffered functional degradation, although it is difficult to calculate the magnitude of the degradation. Wetlands are threatened by air and water pollutants and by hydrologic alteration (USEPA 1994b). Some researchers believe that a significant percentage of the nation's remaining wetlands has been substantially compromised hydrologically (Whigham 198 8; Dahl and Johnson 1991).
http://h2osparc.wq.ncsu.edu/info/wetlands/wetloss.html

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>>>ToP

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Top Soil
 The loss of viable top soil equals a loss of vegetation. Without vegetation the loss of more top soil and underlying soils goes on unabated. The soil itself ends up as silt that plugs storm drains and natural drainage systems, leading to flooding, loss of wildlife habitat and poor water quality. The problem extends to loss of crop production and the air purification and the cooling effect of a well vegetated environment.
 http://www.albrightseed.com/topsoil.htm

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Climate Change
. . . the likely impacts of climate change on agriculture both in the United States and abroad over the last couple of decades.    . . .   Developing countries are likely to have considerably more difficulty [than  the  US] adapting to climate change due to many factors, such as less developed technology and less available capital. In addition, global climate change will clearly impact U.S. agriculture exports, imports and market prices.
http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/ImpactsAgriculture.html
2nd paragraph

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Acid Rain
Over the years, scientists, foresters, and others have watched some forests grow more slowly without knowing why. The trees in these forests do not grow . . . at a healthy pace. Leaves and needles turn brown and fall off when they should be green and healthy. In extreme cases, individual trees or entire areas of the forest simply die off without an obvious reason. Researchers now know that acid rain causes slower growth, injury, or death of forests. . . . In most cases, in fact, the impacts of acid rain on trees occur due to the combined effects of acid rain and these other environmental stressors, such as air pollutants, insects, disease, drought, or very cold weather.
http://www.epa.gov/airmarkets/acidrain/effects/forests.html

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Deforestation

The loss of tropical rain forest is more profound than merely destruction of beautiful areas. If the current rate of deforestation continues, the world's rain forests will vanish within 100 years-causing unknown effects on global climate and eliminating the majority of plant and animal species on the planet.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/Deforestation/

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 53,000 square miles of tropical forests (rain forest and other) were destroyed each year during the 1980s. Of this, they estimate that 21,000 square miles were deforested annually in South America, most of this in the Amazon Basin. Based on these estimates, an area of tropical forest large enough to cover North Carolina is deforested each year!
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/Deforestation/deforestation_2.html

Trees protect the soil against erosion and reduce the risks of landslides and avalanches. They may increase the rate that rainwater recharges groundwater as well as control the rate that water is released in watersheds (FAO 1993). They help to sustain freshwater supplies and therefore are an important factor in the availability of one of life's basic needs. Forests affect the climate and are an important source of oxygen, although they play a lesser role than was once thought (Anderson 1990). The biological diversity of life is notably much greater in the rainforests. Tropical rainforests may contain over one-half the world's total species (Dudley et. al. 1995). But today humankind threatens the forests that provide so much. The tropical forests are most affected, but temperate woodlands are also at great risk. About 1,113,000 hectares of forest in Brazil and 989,000 hectares in Canada were destroyed in 1995 (McCrory et. al. 1997). British Columbia has about forty percent of its original forests remaining, while Europe has less than half (Dudley et. al. 1995). The United States have approximately one to two percent of their original forest cover (Dudley et. al. 1995). "Recent reports by the World Resources Institute have shown that more than 80% of the planet's natural forests have already been destroyed" (Hatch 1997). Humankind is the cause of deforestation. But just as humans are able to create such widespread destruction, they can have a positive effect on the crisis.

Since so many are dependent on the world's forests, deforestation will have many social, economic and ecological effects.  . . .  The loss of forestlands is connected to desertification, a widespread phenomenon. Fewer trees translate into an insecure future for forest workers. Heavy rainfall and high sunlight quickly damage the topsoil in clearings of the tropical rainforests. In such circumstances, the forest will take much longer to regenerate and the land will not be suitable for agricultural use for quite some time. Where forests are replanted, their replacement can mean a loss of quality. As well there is the possibility that the basic elements of potential medical treatments, cures and vaccines may lie undiscovered within these environments.  . . .  Some indigenous peoples' way of life and survival are threatened by the loss of forests. Among these groups are the Waorani of the Amazon's tropical rainforest, the Sami of Lapland's taiga and the Kyuquot of Vancouver Island's temperate rainforest (Dudley et. al. 1995). Often, the stakeholders associated with forest areas are not always consulted before clearcutting occurs. This has sometimes led to non-violent and violent confrontation and fueled bitter rivalries between area residents, the forest sector and environmentalists. Consequently anti-environmentalism has intensified and environmental activism can be dangerous.

Deforestation can cause the climate to become more extreme in nature; the occurrence and strength of floods and droughts could increase. Forests store large amounts of carbon that are released when trees are cut or burned. It is projected that deforestation and the burning of biomass will be responsible for fifteen percent of the greenhouse effect between 1990 and 2025 (FAO 1993). The ranges of tree species could shift with respect to altitude and latitude as a result of global warming. Furthermore, the stress of such environmental change may make some species more susceptible to the effects if insects, pollution, disease and fire (FAO 1993). In addition, genetic diversity may decrease and areas of trees may be lost. Rising sea levels brought on by global warming have the potential to threaten the locations of many major cities, much fertile agricultural land, the purity of freshwater supplies and the survival of some nations. The clearing of forestland results in increased erosion and landslides. Soil from areas of reduced forest cover can fill reservoirs created by dams. Thus a dam's ability and future capacity to generate hydroelectricity and provide irrigation would be significantly reduced. Forests play a crucial role in the management of fisheries. Logging has directly and indirectly damaged spawning grounds, blocked river channels, raised water temperatures and caused water levels in streams to fluctuate dangerously. Therefore, the removal of trees can reduce the viability of fish stocks in their watershed and downstream environments. The effects of deforestation discussed are of considerable magnitudes. Still, with all the present and predicted problems, it was estimated that one acre of Canadian forest was logged every 12.9 seconds in 1995 (McCrory et. al. 1997).
http://www.aquapulse.net/knowledge/deforestation.html

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Desertification is the conversion of  farm & pasture lands to deserts; it is not the same as desert growth -- another problem.

Desertification reduces the land's resilience to natural climate variability.  Soil becomes less productive. Exposed and eroded topsoil can be blown away by the wind or washed away by rainstorms. The soil's physical structure and bio-chemical composition can change for the worse. Vegetation becomes damaged. The loss of vegetation cover is both a consequence and a cause of land degradation. Degraded land may cause downstream flooding, reduced water quality, sedimentation in rivers and lakes, and siltation of reservoirs and navigation channels. It can also cause dust storms and air pollution, resulting in damaged machinery, reduced visibility, unwanted sediment deposits, and mental stress. Wind-blown dust can also worsen health problems, including eye infections, respiratory illnesses, and allergies. Dramatic increases in the frequency of dust storms were recorded during the Dust Bowl years in the US, in the Virgin Lands scheme area in the former USSR in the 1950s, and in the African Sahel during the 1970s and 1980s. Food production is undermined. Desertification contributes to famine . . . has enormous social costs  .  .  .   the relationship between desertification, movements of people, and conflicts. In Africa, many people have become internally displaced or forced to migrate to other countries due to war, drought, and dryland degradation. The environmental resources in and around the cities and camps where these people settle come under severe pressure. Difficult living conditions and the loss of cultural identity further undermine social stability
http://www.unccd.int/publicinfo/factsheets/showFS.php?number=3

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Global Dimming: The amount of solar energy reaching the Earth's surface has fallen by 22% in the past 50 years. The cause is air pollution. Burning coal, oil and wood, whether in cars, power stations or cooking fires, produces (in addition to CO2) tiny airborne particles of soot, ash, sulphur compounds and other pollutants, which reflect sunlight back into space, preventing it reaching the surface. Paradoxically, this decline means that global warming is a far greater threat than previously thought, because it has led scientists to underestimate the true power of the greenhouse effect.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4171591.stm
http://sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?type=article&article_id=218392505
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sun
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread206786/pg

Ozone Depletion:   The ozone layer protects the earth's surface and its creatures from destructive UV radiation. See "Mitigations" below. --GB

Nearly all of the chlorine, and half of the bromine in the stratosphere, where most of the [ozone] depletion has been observed, comes from human activities. [This link provides details of the chemisrty of ozone depletion.]
http://www.atm.ch.cam.ac.uk/tour/part3.html 

[At] the Halley Bay station in Antarctica. . .  after about 1975. By 1994, the total ozone in October was less than half its value during the 1970s, 20 years previous. This dramatic fall in ozone was caused by the use of man-made chemicals known as 'halocarbons' which include the well-known CFCs commonly used in fridges and so on. These CFCs had made their way into the upper atmosphere where the much stronger UV radiation from the Sun had broken them down into their component molecules, releasing the potentially damaging chlorine (and bromine) atoms, which, given the right conditions, could destroy ozone.
http://www.atm.ch.cam.ac.uk/tour/part2.html

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Pollutants

Most of the mercury in the atmosphere is elemental mercury vapor, which circulates in the atmosphere for up to a year, and hence can be widely dispersed and transported thousands of miles from likely sources of emission. . . . The best point estimate of annual anthropogenic U.S. emissions of mercury in l994-1995 is 158 tons. Roughly 87 percent of these emissions are from combustion sources, including waste and fossil fuel combustion. . . . One estimate of the total annual global input to the atmosphere from all sources including natural, anthropogenic, and oceanic emissions is 5,500 tons. Based on this, U.S. sources are estimated to have contributed about 3 percent of the 5,500 tons in 1995.
http://www.epa.gov/oar/mercury.html   Click on "short overview"

Despite three decades of progress, existing air-quality laws are inadequate to prevent pollution from threatening the environment and human health, . . . the National Research Council of the National Academies, said it was particularly concerned about ozone, an ingredient of smog that has proved difficult to curtail, and fine soot, which has been shown to be especially harmful  . . . authorities in many polluted regions are increasingly finding that even if they control local emissions, they can end up violating federal standards because of additional pollution drifting from sources outside their jurisdiction. And even though individual smokestacks and tailpipes are generally getting cleaner as a result of clean-air laws, their numbers are growing rapidly because of economic and population growth.
New York Times Jan 30, 2004 article by Andrew C. Revkin on anti-pollution laws

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Latest   Addition

THE FACTS: (1) Growing concern about global warming has reduced public attention to the many different  threats against the health of our planet and the lives of its inhabitants. Some of these, such as loss of water resources, are much aggravated by global warming; others, such as deforestation, contribute to it; while still others, such as  over fishing, pollution and soil depletion, are mostly independent of it.

(2) Even if greenhouse gas (mainly carbon dioxide) emissions could be reduced enough so that natural processes remove equal amouns, and the gas concentrations in the atmosphere stop increasing, the heating would continue until a new equilibrium is established. This would take at least several decades. The consequence would be degradation or ruin of many habitats and environments worldwide. Adaptation would be difficult.

(3) But, something different will happen. Only a few of the goals for combating global warming contemplate such drastic limits to the emissions. All the others, the main ones, call for reduction by some percentage, to be attained some years in the future. Therefore, the concentrations will continue to rise. There will be no equilibrium. Heating will increase, and accelerate, without limit. The result will be devastation to all habitats. Adaptation will be impossible.
 
(4) An example? The planet Venus is enveloped by a heavy, 96% carbon dioxide atmosphere, which has caused a runaway greenhouse effect. Venus’ surface temperature is about 482° C (900° F), hotter than Mercury, hot enough to melt lead. While there is little reason to believe Earth will end up that hot, it will surely become much, much hotter than it is now.

(5)  Fossil fuel producers are increasing their outputs to meet surging demands. Given the power of greed and stupidity to (at least temporarily) overwhelm ingenuity, reason and foresight, even those called for (above) inadequate goals for reducing emissions will not be realized in a timely way.

THE COROLLARY: Habitat destruction and species extinctions (especially the larger and more complex species), due to planetary heating and other causes, will be virtually completed by the end of the century. Of course, one of the terminated species will be Homo sapiens.  -- GB,  May 2008


ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland — Ocean temperatures in the North Atlantic hit an all-time high last year, raising concerns about the effects of global warming on one of the most sensitive and productive ecosystems in the world. . . .
The Associated Press Jul 8, 2005

Greenland ice swells ocean rise  By Paul Rincon BBC News  Thursday, 16 February 2006
Greenland's glaciers are sliding towards the sea much faster than previously believed, . . . It was thought the entire Greenland ice sheet could melt in about 1,000 years, but the latest evidence suggests that could happen much sooner. . . . sea levels will rise a great deal faster as well . . . amount of ice dumped into the Atlantic Ocean has doubled in the last five years. If the Greenland ice sheet melted completely, it would raise global sea levels by about 7m. Greenland's contribution to global sea level rise today is two to three times greater than it was in 1996. . . . In 1996, Greenland was losing about 100 cubic km per year in mass from its ice sheet. In 2005, this had increased to about 220 cubic km. By comparison, the city of Los Angeles uses about one cubic km of water per year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4720536.stm


global environmental issues Excerpt from Preview of a Post-U.S. World
by Fareed Zakaria  Newsweek International Jan 30, 2007
. . . China, which in three years will likely become the world's biggest emitter of CO2, is determined not to be a leader in dealing with global environmental issues. "The ball is not in China's court," said Zhu Min, the executive vice president of the Bank of China . . .  "The ball is in everybody's court." India's brilliant planning czar, Montek Singh Alluwalliah, said that "every country should have the same per capita rights to pollution." In the abstract that's logical enough, but in the real world, if 2.3 billion people (the population of China plus India) pollute at average Western levels, you will have a global meltdown.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16843382/site/newsweek/

50 years to Hellbreak:
      "Our world society is presently on a non-sustainable course . . . For example, destruction of accessible lowland tropical rain forests . . . will be complete around the world except perhaps for parts of the Amazon Basin and Congo Basin within 25 years. At current rates we shall have depleted or destroyed most of the world's remaining marine fisheries . . . within a few decades . . . Global warming is projected to have reached a degree Centigrade or more, and a substantial fraction of the worlds [remaining] wild animal and plant species are projected to be endangered or past the point of no return, within half a century. . . .
      Thus, because we are rapidly advancing along this non-sustainable course, the world's environmental problems will get resolved, in one way or another, within the life times of the children and young adults alive today. The only question is whether they will become resolved in pleasant ways of our choice, or in unpleasant ways . . . such as warfare, genocide, starvation, disease epidemics, and collapses of societies. . . . their frequency increases with environmental degradation, population pressure, and the resulting poverty and political instability." (Emphasis added – GB)
-- from page 498 of "Collapse -- How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" by Dr. Jared Diamond. (This book is the definitive work on environmental collapse due to human activities and its consequences.)

In the past 50 years, the needs of an exploding world population have caused an unsustainable consumption of natural resources. Our exploitation of food, fresh water, timber, fibre and fuel has seriously degraded the environment, has changed most ecosystems beyond recognition and has caused irreversible changes that are degrading the natural processes that support life on Earth. 
http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/global.condition.aspx 
A six-part series on the some of the most pressing environmental issues facing the human race today.
The environment in depth, in detail; frequently updated.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2004/planet/default.stm

Greenhouse Effect & Global Warming
(1) Creationists can supply "evidence" and "experts" to "prove" that evolution is a myth.
(2) Neo-NAZIs & some Moslem fanatics can supply "evidence" and "experts" to "prove" that the holocaust never happened. -- GB

November Meltdown – 4 excerpts
(1) NY Times November 9, 2004 By HOWARD W. FRENCH
A Melting Glacier in Tibet Serves as an Example and a Warning
The glacier, named Zepu, has lost more than 100 yards of thickness, all in the last three decades, largely because of rising temperatures in the region. And it is hardly unique. . . . documented similar losses all over Tibet, the largest and loftiest highlands on earth, and home to the biggest concentration of alpine glaciers anywhere. . . . Nor are these changes limited to Tibet. "Make no mistake, what's happening to the glaciers in Tibet is happening around the globe," . . . between 1850 and 1960, the glaciers retreated 7.5 percent. Between 1960 and 2000, there was a further 7 percent retreat. "In the 1990's alone, the glaciers have shrunk by more than4 percent."  . . . documented large puddles of melting ice at 20,000 feet in the Himalayas, where for thousands of years all has been frozen. . . . In Peru, . . . the Quelccaya ice cap retreated a rate of more than 600 feet a year from 2000 to 2002 - up from just 15 feet a year in the 1960's and 70's - leaving a vast 80-foot-deep lake where none had existed when his studies began. On Kilimanjaro in Kenya, an 11,700-year-old ice cap that measured 4.3 square miles in 1912 had shrunk to 0.94 square miles in 2000, and is projected to disappear altogether in about 15 years. . . . the evidence of drastic climate change becomes quite compelling . . . the consequences of glacial ice melting on this scale are far-reaching. The most important long-term threat, perhaps, is to the low-lying coastal cities around the world - places like New York and New Orleans, or Tokyo and Shanghai [& Venice] - which could see more frequent flooding as a result of rising sea levels in this century. In other parts of the Himalayas, large newborn lakes are accumulating behind dams of ice that could break, unleashing deadly flash floods.
(2) From Cox News Service, N0v. 15, 2004 by Tom Teepen
In a preview of some of the consequences from unchecked global warming, the [Arctic Climate Impact Assessment] study found that the Arctic regions of the United States, Canada and Russia have been warming at a rate about 10 times that of the rest of Earth. Average temperatures have risen four to seven degrees in just the last 50 years. Arctic ice is melting. It will be turning up as higher sea levels and will flood, among other places, parts of Florida and Louisiana particularly.
The culprits are the greenhouse gases created by burning fossil fuels. The scientific consensus on this point is international and nearly universal except for a few holdouts still on the payrolls of implicated energy and related industries.
But to hear the U.S. government tell it -- at least, the current administration and depending upon which agency is speaking -- either global warming is a fiction gotten up by anti-business socialists or, if it is real, it is a natural, cyclical phenomenon and the right and proper answer to it is to quit whining and look on the bright side of how great it is going to be for water sports.
(3) Reuters via Yahoo, Wed November 17,11:20 PM ET By Ed Cropley
Melting Glaciers Threaten World Water Supply
Mountain glaciers, which act as the world's water towers, are shrinking at ever faster rates, threatening the livelihoods of millions of people and the future of countless species,  . . .   Around 75 percent of the world's fresh water is stored in glacial ice, much of it in mountain areas, allowing for heavy winter rain and snow-falls to be released gradually into river networks throughout summer or dry months.  "For some species and some people there are going to be big problems because mountain areas feed not just rural people but big cities, . . .  In dry countries, mountain glaciers can account for as much as 95 percent of water in river networks, while even in lowland areas of temperate countries such as Germany, around 40 percent of water comes from mountain ice-fields, . . . "It's a huge issue in the long run because once the glaciers go, you're down to whatever happens to fall out of the sky and come downstream,"
(4) Associated Press November. 17, 2004  Melting glaciers caused by climate change pose an urgent threat to Mount Everest's unique environment . . . Lakes have swollen from runoff, and unless urgent action is taken, many lakes could burst, threatening the lives of thousands of people and destroying the environment . . .

        Growing evidence suggests [that] the ocean-atmosphere system [which] controls the world's climate can lurch from one state to another in less than a decade . . . abrupt climate change may well occur in the not-too-distant future. If it does, the need to rapidly adapt may overwhelm many societies -- thereby upsetting the geopolitical balance of power. . . . A few years ago such changes seemed signs of possible trouble for our kids or grandkids. Today they seem portents of a cataclysm that may not conveniently wait until we're history. . . . In 2002 the National Academy of Science issued a report concluding that human activities could trigger abrupt change.
        The Pentagon has taken this seriously enough to investigate the possible results and ways to deal with them.
"CLIMATE COLLAPSE The Pentagon's Weather Nightmare" by David Stipp in FORTUNE, Feb. 9, 2004

Rising sea levels brought on by global warming have the potential to threaten the locations of many major cities, much fertile agricultural land, the purity of freshwater supplies and the survival of some nations.
http://www.aquapulse.net/knowledge/deforestation.html   (Middle of 4th paragraph)

Rising global temperatures are expected to raise sea level, and change precipitation and other local climate conditions. Changing regional climate could alter forests, crop yields, and water supplies. It could also affect human health, animals, and many types of ecosystems. Deserts may expand into existing rangelands . . . Most of the United States is expected to warm, although sulfates may limit warming in some areas. Scientists currently are unable to determine which parts of the United States will become wetter or drier, but there is likely to be an overall trend toward increased precipitation and evaporation, more intense rainstorms, and drier soils. 
http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/Impacts.html

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Mitigations