The Threat of Global Warming

If the scientific predictions of global warming hold true, there's trouble ahead for much of the world's fresh water--and for people living in low-lying areas.

The phenomenon, first described in the 1980s, attributed projected rises in global temperatures to the emission of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases," so called because they trap the sun's solar energy close to the Earth's surface, just like a glass roof helps keep a greenhouse warm. The overwhelming source of these emissions is the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, gasoline, coal and natural gas, the principal power sources of modern industry and transportation.

In 1988, the United Nations set up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to study the validity and potential effects of global warming. The panel, composed of an international group of climate scientists, issued a report in June 1990 predicting a nearly two-degree rise in the globe's average temperature by 2020. At that unprecedented rate of increase, the panel found, humankind would be living in a hotter environment than ever before.

One of the most visible effects of global warming, the scientists suggested, would be to reduce the world's supply of fresh water. Rising temperatures could cause a tenfold increase in the incidence of drought by 2050, the scientist reported, mostly in regions already suffering from chronic water shortages.

At the same time, melting glaciers and permafrost would increase the volume of water in polar regions, causing extensive flooding, particularly in Russia and Scandinavia. Glacier melt also would cause an overall rise in sea levels by up to eight inches in 2030, flooding low-lying areas such as the Netherlands and the densely populated river deltas of Egypt and Bangladesh.

Freshwater supplies in low-lying areas also would be threatened by contamination from rising seas. The panel further predicted that a rise in sea levels by one meter "would displace populations, destroy low-lying infrastructure, flood arable lands, contaminate freshwater supplies and alter coastlines."

The theory of global warming has been challenged from the start by industry representatives and oil-producing countries, largely because of the economic threat posed by the theory. But after years of haggling, representatives of the 75 member nations of the IPCC recently agreed that "the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible human influence on global climate."

The IPCC was saying, in other words, that continuing consumption of fossil fuels threatens future generations, including their water supplies

--Congressional Quarterly Researcher, Dec. 15, 1995

created by: Debbie Anholt
updated: 5-5-2000
contact me: anholt@lclark.edu