scholarly journals Szósta katastrofa – wyniszczenie w dobie człowieka

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 184-200
Author(s):  
Marcin Łubiński ◽  

As the scientists indicate in their analyzes, about 60% of vertebrates on Earth have extinct since the industrial revolution. The inevitable climate catastrophe in the coming decades will bring even more noticeable damage. Due to the pres-ence of the human species in the world and its unrestrained expansion, the eff ects of Homo sapiens activity aff ect almost all ecosystems. Snowless winters, rising sea levels or extremely high temperatures are symptoms of a disaster that we are unable to ignore. This article briefl y discusses the most signifi cant threats to ecosystem services, the eff ects of careless human activity, and their current as well as future consequences, broken down into individual “sectors” of human activity. The current geopolitical situation regarding climate change and its impact on the world will also be presented. This article is mainly based on the 2019 IPBES report and reports from WWF and other entities dealing with climate change.

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 26-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasios Danos ◽  
Konstantina Boulouta

This article analyses the profound and rapid climate changes that have taken place worldwide in the past two decades and their effects on modern enterprise. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and developing strategies to adapt to and counterbalance future impacts of climate change sustainably are among the most pressing needs of the world today. Global temperatures are predicted to continue rising, bringing changes in weather patterns, rising sea levels, and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Such climatic events can have a major impact on households, businesses, critical infrastructure and vulnerable sections of society, as well as having a major economic impact. Therefore, society must prepare to cope with living in a changing climate. The effects of a changing climate have considerable impacts on modern enterprises. In some parts of the world, these impacts are increasingly becoming evident.


2021 ◽  
Vol 258 ◽  
pp. 9-11
Author(s):  
Dawn Holland ◽  
Hande Kucuk ◽  
Miguel León-Ledesma

Climate change is one of the most serious risks facing humanity. Temperature rises can lead to catastrophic climate and natural events that threaten livelihoods. From rising sea levels to flooding, bush fires, extreme temperatures and droughts, the economic and human cost is too large to ignore. More than 190 world leaders got together in Glasgow during November 2021 at the UN’s COP26 climate change summit to discuss progress on the Paris Agreement (COP21) and to agree on new measures to limit global warming. In Paris, countries agreed to limit global warming to well below 2° and aim for 1.5° as well as to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate and raise the necessary funding to deliver on these aims. However, actions to date were not nearly enough as highlighted by the IPCC (2018) special report. The world is still on track to reach warming above 3° by 2100. As evident from figure 1, global temperatures have been on a steadily increasing path since the start of the 20th century and this process has substantially accelerated since the beginning of the 1980s. This has been unevenly distributed, with temperatures in the Northern hemisphere being a full 1°C higher than for the 1961–1990 average, whilst temperatures in the Southern hemisphere have increased by almost 0.5°C.


Author(s):  
Costas P. Pappis

In the previous chapter 3 the focus of the presentation has been on the implications of climate change, as felt globally, for the environment and human societies in developing as well as in developed countries. As noticed there, the Stern Review’s conclusion that “climate change will have increasingly severe impacts on people around the world, with a growing risk of abrupt and large-scale changes at higher temperatures” (Stern Review, 2006) is shared by most scientists and governments. The Review warns that “a warmer world with a more intense water cycle and rising sea levels will influence many key determinants of wealth and well-being, including water supply, food production, human health, availability of land, and the environment” (Stern Review, p. 84).


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (212) ◽  
Author(s):  

Tonga is one of the world’s most exposed countries to climate change and natural disasters. It suffered the highest loss from natural disasters in the world (as a ratio to GDP) in 2018 and is among the top five over the last decade (Table 1). Climate change will make this worse. Cyclones will become more intense, with more damage from wind and sea surges. Rising sea levels will cause more flooding, coastal erosion and contaminate fresh water. Daily high temperatures will become more extreme, with more severe floods and drought.


Author(s):  
Nicholas Watts

Modifiable environmental factors are at the centre of over 23% of global deaths every year. The impact on human health is projected to worsen substantially in the coming years, with the health of women and children, and those in low and middle-income countries, disproportionately undermined by many of these environmental determinants. Ninety-nine per cent of all climate change related deaths occur in low and middle-income countries, and 80% of these occur in children. This chapter provides an overview of the interactions between environment and health, exploring the implications of degrading the quality of the air, water, food, and shelter that human wellbeing depends on. As we firmly enter the Anthropocene—a geological era defined by homo sapiens’ new-found ability to alter the planet’s ecosystems—this chapter will also consider the impacts of climate change on women’s and children’s health. Climate change, resulting in, among other things, rising sea levels and changing patterns of extreme weather events, has important social and demographic dimensions, results in direct and indirect health impacts, and exacerbates health inequalities. Tackling the effects that the environment and climate change have on human health will require more joined-up, cross-sectoral policymaking, for example considering the broader environmental and social consequences of agriculture or transport policies to maximise health benefits and minimise adverse effects.


Author(s):  
Anastasios Danos ◽  
Konstantina Boulouta

This article analyses the profound and rapid climate changes that have taken place worldwide in the past two decades and their effects on modern enterprise. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and developing strategies to adapt to and counterbalance future impacts of climate change sustainably are among the most pressing needs of the world today. Global temperatures are predicted to continue rising, bringing changes in weather patterns, rising sea levels, and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Such climatic events can have a major impact on households, businesses, critical infrastructure and vulnerable sections of society, as well as having a major economic impact. Therefore, society must prepare to cope with living in a changing climate. The effects of a changing climate have considerable impacts on modern enterprises. In some parts of the world, these impacts are increasingly becoming evident.


2020 ◽  
pp. 026101832096176
Author(s):  
Peter Somerville

Failure to take climate change seriously enough has resulted in the world now facing a climate emergency, with rising global temperatures, melting polar ice caps, increasingly frequent and severe storms, floods and droughts, and rising sea levels. Despite being the first country in the world to set statutory carbon emissions reduction targets (in the Climate Change Act 2008), the UK government since 2012 has fallen increasingly behind, even by its own standards. This paper details what this has meant in terms of specific policies and identifies some of the reasons for this policy failure: in particular, a negative attitude towards regulation and a return to a reliance on market forces, plus an overriding concern to continue with ‘business as usual’, in terms of support for fossil-fuel industries and ever-increasing energy demand and supply. Ironically, this has resulted in a situation where radical solutions seem even more necessary and more urgent.


Author(s):  
Gianfranco Pacchioni

About 10,000 years ago, at the beginning of the agriculturalrevolution, on the whole earth lived between 5 and 8 million hunter-gatherers, all belonging to the Homo sapiens species. Five thousand years later, freed from the primary needs for survival, some belonging to that species enjoyed the privilege of devoting themselves to philosophical speculation and the search for transcendental truths. It was only in the past two hundred years, however, with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, that reaping nature’s secrets and answering fundamental questions posed by the Universe have become for many full-time activities, on the way to becoming a real profession. Today the number of scientists across the globe has reached and exceeded 10 million, that is, more than the whole human race 10,000 years ago. If growth continues at the current rate, in 2050 we will have 35 million people committed full-time to scientific research. With what consequences, it remains to be understood. For almost forty years I myself have been concerned with science in a continuing, direct, and passionate way. Today I perceive, along with many colleagues, especially of my generation, that things are evolving and have changed deeply, in ways unimaginable until a few years ago and, in some respects, not without danger. What has happened in the world of science in recent decades is more than likely a mirror of a similar and equally radical transformation taking place in modern society, particularly with the advent ...


Author(s):  
Akira Hirano

AbstractImportant aspects for understanding the effects of climate change on tropical cyclones (TCs) are the frequency of TCs and their tracking patterns. Coastal areas are increasingly threatened by rising sea levels and associated storm surges brought on by TCs. Rice production in Myanmar relies strongly on low-lying coastal areas. This study aims to provide insights into the effects of global warming on TCs and the implications for sustainable development in vulnerable coastal areas in Myanmar. Using TC records from the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship dataset during the 30-year period from 1983 to 2012, a hot spot analysis based on Getis-Ord (Gi*) statistics was conducted to identify the spatiotemporal patterns of TC tracks along the coast of Myanmar. The results revealed notable changes in some areas along the central to southern coasts during the study period. These included a considerable increase in TC tracks (p value < 0.01) near the Ayeyarwady Delta coast, otherwise known as “the rice bowl” of the nation. This finding aligns with trends in published studies and reinforced the observed trends with spatial statistics. With the intensification of TCs due to global warming, such a significant increase in TC experiences near the major rice-producing coastal region raises concerns about future agricultural sustainability.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tallulah Harvey

This short story, “The Archive”, grew out of the eco-critical research I underwent during my postgraduate degree at Goldsmiths, University of London. In recent years, literary studies have become increasingly invested in environmentalism. The damaging consequences of human endeavour are now widely regarded within environmentalist and scientific communities, and by environmental literary theory or “ecocriticism”, as a shift from the Holocene (the geological epoch that provided the appropriate conditions for mammals to thrive), to the “Anthropocene” (the epoch in which human activity has become the dominant driving force of climatic change). The ecological implications of the Anthropocene prompt questions regarding human enterprise and responsibility; fuelling dystopian or apocalyptic end of the world narratives and anxieties towards technology, capitalism and post-humanism. This short piece explores the current problems facing climate change activists, namely the inconsistencies between the scientific community’s attitude towards ecological degradation and popular culture’s. Slajov Zizek suggests that public denial and the disassociation from environmental disaster is not caused by a lack of scientific knowledge, but because we as individuals fail to corroborate what we already know about climate change with our sensory experience of the everyday: ‘We know it, but we cannot make ourselves believe in what we know’. The Archive questions this pervasive delusion, one that denies climate change even in the face of dwindling resources, increasing natural disaster and rising sea levels. We as a society consume natural resources excessively, without any regard for the consequences.  My work draws attention to the suicidal nature of this desire, and encourages its readers to take responsibility for their actions, for the sake of humanity’s survival.


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