Kauai, Hawaii, U.S.A
The fourth largest of the Hawaiian Islands, Kauai is one of the wettest spots on earth. Large parts of the mountainous island are swathed in cloud. These lush and mossy forests are home to the colorful Hawaiian honeycreeper, an endangered bird species. Even small shifts in rainfall patterns could cause major local changes, putting the islands’ distinct ecosystem under severe stress.
Caribbean Sea
Four types of endangered sea turtles feed and mate among the corals of the Caribbean. Rising sea levels and temperatures, acidification of the oceans, and extreme storms could erode the beaches where the females nest and could threaten the coral reefs upon which the turtles depend. Since temperature affects the gender of turtle hatchlings, scientists fear a decline in male turtles, which could threaten the survival of the species.
Recife, Brazil
This commercial center of northeastern Brazil is also a prime destination for tourists, who come for the pleasant weather and white beaches. Due to its dense coastal development, Recife—like Rio de Janeiro and BuenosAires—is highly vulnerable to rising sea levels, hurricanes, and storm surges. The degradation of its coral reefs could also expose the city to flooding.
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A
The Windy City has been the Midwest’s center of transportation, industry, finance, and entertainment since it was founded in the 1830s on the shore of Lake Michigan. More than 9.5 million people now live in the metro area, making it the third-most-populous city in the U.S. In the coming years, the city could experience a gradual yet dramatic increase in heat waves and flooding.
Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peru
It’s an awe-inspiring sight: massive ice fields and blue-white glaciers span 27 square miles of the Cordillera Oriental mountain range. The Quelccaya Ice Cap, the largest body of ice in the tropics, feeds the streams and rivers of the valleys below. It has lost 20 percent of its surface area since 1978 and could disappear entirely by the end of the century.
Rio de la Plata, Uruguay
Fresh water from the Paran· and Uruguay rivers collides with salt water from the South Atlantic Ocean in the muddy estuary of RÌo de la Plata. The estuary keeps the surrounding land rich and fertile and provides a natural habitat for a number of threatened species, including the rare La Plata dolphin. Changes in climate may lead to flooding of the coastal area.
Charlevoix, Quebec
Dominated by conifers and broad-leaved trees such as birch, aspen, rowan, and poplar, Quebec’s Charlevoix region is a breeding ground for more than 200 bird species and home to caribou, lynx, black bear, moose, coyote, timber wolf, wood bison, grizzly bear, beaver, and other mammals. For the rest of the century, rising temperatures are expected to threaten Canada’s boreal forest and its diverse wildlife.
Western Hudson Bay, Canada
For much of the year, polar bears roam the frozen Hudson Bay, hunting for seals. In the western portion of the bay, the ice begins to melt in late spring. The polar bears then go into hibernation, living off reserves of body fat until the sea freezes again. The ice now breaks up three weeks earlier than it did in the early 1970s, limiting the endangered bears’ access to food.
Mississippi River Delta, U.S.A
The mighty Mississippi flows south and trails into the Gulf of Mexico through a vast, subtropical landscape of rivers, marshes, and low-lying barrier islands. At the rim of the delta, the Chandeleur Islands form a natural buffer zone for the heavily populated coastal regions of Louisiana—which include New Orleans—against increasingly stormy seas.
Trinidad, Cuba
Renowned for its well-preserved Spanish colonial architecture, the town of Trinidad has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But Trinidad, together with the rest of Cuba, lies in the path of hurricanes. An effort is now underway to reinforce buildings against more severe storms that threaten both the town’s colonial heritage and the lives of its citizens.
Columbia River, U.S.A.
Forming much of the border between the states of Oregon and Washington, the Columbia River is the largest North American river, by volume, that flows into the Pacific Ocean. Salmon hatch in its waters, migrate downstream to the Pacific Ocean, and return against the current to breed. The fish are threatened by efforts to dam the river for electricity generation. Rising temperatures will add to their troubles.
Veracruz, Mexico
Small farmers in east-central Mexico produce organic shade coffee, an essential export. For years these farmers have suffered from low coffee prices. In the near future, however, the odd combination of drought and flooding during the summer months and unusually harsh winters is expected to take its toll on the land.
Honduras
The most mountainous country in Central America, Honduras contains some of the world’s richest land for growing coffee and bananas, vital exports for this poor nation. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch killed nearly 6,000 people, obliterated much of the country’s infrastructure, and destroyed crops. Three other hurricanes have since surpassed Mitch in severity.
Monteverde Cloud Forest, Costa Rica
For most of the year, the humidity level in this tropical forest reaches 100 percent. With majestic trees festooned with orchids, bromeliads, ferns, vines, and mosses, it’s home to a multitude of rare animal and plant species. Rising temperatures are expected to upset this fragile balance, with detrimental effects on the biodiversity that has flourished here for centuries.
Caracas
More than 4 million people live in Caracas—2 million of them in barrios on the slopes that surround the city. Landslides caused by heavy rain are a chronic problem. In 1999, in one of the Americas’ worst natural disasters, 30,000 people were killed in flash floods triggered by several days of rainstorms. Such extreme weather is projected to hit Caracas more frequently and with increasing force.
Valdes Peninsula, Argentina
Each winter, thousands of Southern Right Whales migrate from their feeding grounds near Antarctica to breed in the ValdÈs peninsula, alongside large colonies of sea lions and elephant seals. Krill, the whales’ main source of food, are threatened by higher ocean temperatures and melting sea ice around the Antarctic, which would in turn hurt the whales’ chances of survival.
Big Sur, California, U.S.A
This famed 90-mile stretch of coastline, located between San Francisco and Los Angeles, is one of the most beautiful natural landscapes in the United States. Like much of California, Big Sur has been hard hit over the past few decades by drought and rising temperatures. This change in climate is leading to more frequent wildfires, which could devastate the region’s ecosystems.
Panama Canal, Panama
When the Panama Canal opened in 1914, it revolutionized shipping by providing an alternative to the southern route around Cape Horn. About 4 percent of world trade now passes through the canal. Raising and lowering ships between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which differ by 85 feet in elevation, requires vast amounts of increasingly scarce fresh water. Shortages have forced several closures in recent years.
The Battery, NYC, U.S.A
The southern shoreline of Manhattan, known as the Battery, has been a popular promenade since the 17th century. About every 100 years the area experiences extreme flooding that reaches heights of up to 10 feet. These floods could worsen and become much more common over the next few decades as a result of increasingly frequent storms and rising sea levels.
Bering Sea, Russia and U.S.A
The Bering Sea provides almost half the seafood caught in the U.S. and is also home to sea lions, walruses, polar bears, endangered whales, and more than 30 species of seabird. The warming of the oceans could have a substantial impact on its biodiversity: in the northern reaches, there is already less ice than just a few decades ago, and it melts earlier.
Amazon Rainforest, Brazil
The Amazon is the largest rainforest on the planet, covering 3.4 million square miles over nine nations and home to 20 percent of all plant and animal species in the world. Over the past 30 years, however, nearly 373,000 square miles of the rainforest have been felled in Brazil alone. At that rate, more than 30 percent of the forest could be gone by mid century.
No comments:
Post a Comment