WWF: The Crisis

 ARTICLE:

The Crisis

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Climate blog

* More on information on climate impacts

Nobody should underestimate the task faced by climate negotiators this year, nor its urgency.
Climate change

* is already contributing to severe droughts, floods and hurricanes, and spreading diseases such as malaria and dengue fever.

* is damaging critical ecosystems including the Great Barrier Reef, the Amazon rainforest and the Arctic.

* will mean entire island nations disappear as sea levels rise.

Scientists say the heat wave in Europe in 2003, which killed 30,000 people, could not have happened without global warming.

In addition to the almost 1 billion food-insecure people, many more in developing countries will face food insecurity if deserts spread, if the Asian monsoon system is substantively changed, or if the freshwater supply from melting mountain glaciers such as those in the Himalayas becomes increasingly erratic.

The UN’s authorized climate institution, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), calculates that unchecked climate change will cut global food production by up to 40% by 2100.

Worse still, the planet may be close to tipping points – with entire ecosystems flipping into a new state – beyond which the planet will be transformed in ways we will not be able to put right.

These tipping points will catapult the global climate into a new and more fragile state, and destabilize the polar ice sheets in Greenland and the Antarctic, causing a sea-level rise of many metres.

A warmer climate may also unleash billions of tonnes of planet-warming methane from melting permafrost, and CO2 from forests increasingly exposed to droughts, insect damage and fires, all of which could cause runaway climate change.

And eventually the ocean circulation system could be switched off.

http://www.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/climate_carbon_energy/climate_deal/2009_climate_copenhagen/climate_crisis/

ANNOTATED:

PRECIS:

THE CRISIS – WWF

Not only the financial crisis has hit, but the climate crisis is ready to kill. The first word of the article “nobody” is in contrast to its meaning, as it speaking to everyone. Using listing, the article explains the danger coming with the global climate destabilization. For one it is already contributing to droughts, hurricanes, and floods and spreading diseases, but it also damages ecosystems such as the Arctic or the Amazon Rainforest. The article uses bullet points for its listing, and includes listing within the listing. This effect gets many facts thrown at the reader instantly, which are drawn from the climate change. As water levels rise, many sea-leveled islands will disappear, and scientists believe that the heat wave in 2003 that killed 30,000 people in Europe can only come from climate change. This fact uses the reference to an “expert” the scientist, since it is more convincing that the statement is true, although the name or area of the scientist has not been mentioned. Different results of the climate change can cause different problems, such as the glacier melting that can cause floods, or the deserts spreading which causes droughts and a loss of animal and plant life. Predictions have been made by the UN’s authorized climate institution, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), that the food production will be reduced by 40% in 2100. With these statistical data that the WWF has included in the article, the reader is more prone to wanting to change the world and how the individual acts towards the environment. A metaphoric “tipping point” is used to describe that the world’s resources might head towards an end and it can only end drastically for the future populations. It also uses “may,” “able,” and “could,” suggesting that these scenarios are rather hypothetical rather than a true fact. The article ends with “And eventually the ocean circulation system could be switched off,” using a metaphor to once again describe the near end of the human civilization showing that there will be a drastic end effect.