Whether or not there is a link to the Gulf oil disaster, scientists and news media are now discussing seriously the possibility of severe flooding in Asia being caused by climate change. Collapsing ocean ecosystems are also being noted.
Severe flooding and unusually dramatic heat waves, all appear to point to global warming and climate change. And May of 2010 appears to be time of the start of the most dramatic changes.
The Gulf oil spill was in April. The earth's atmosphere gained a considerable amount of methane. The ocean's life forms have been subjected to a considerable amount of toxins.
What happens in one part of the planet affects all of the planet. It's called ecology.
Other human caused factors may be contributing to the flooding in Asia as well.
And there are political implications to all of this.
Here's what Reuters reports:
(Reuters) - A dramatic spike in ocean temperatures off Indonesia's Aceh province has killed large areas of coral and scientists fear the event could be much larger than first thought and one of the worst in the region's history.
The coral bleaching -- whitening due to heat driving out the algae living within the coral tissues -- was first reported in May after a surge in temperatures across the Andaman Sea from the northern tip of Sumatra island to Thailand and Myanmar.
An international team of scientists studying the bleaching event found that 80 percent of some species have died since the initial assessment in May.
More coral colonies were expected to die within the next few months and that could spell disaster for local communities reliant on the reefs for food and money from tourism...
..."This one of the most rapid and severe coral mortality events ever recorded," the U.S.-based WCS said in a statement.
It also fits a pattern of climate extremes, from heatwaves to flooding, that have hit many areas of the globe this year.
Between April and late May, sea surface temperatures in the Andaman Sea rose to 34 degrees Celsius or about 4 degrees C above the long-term average, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Hotspots website...
..."Similar mass bleaching events in 2010 have now been recorded in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia and many parts of Indonesia," the WCS statement said.
Baird, of James Cook University's ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, told Reuters that climate change could have played a role in the extreme ocean temperatures around Aceh.
"There might be one of these cyclic climate phenomena driving it but it's much more severe than you would predict unless there was something else forcing it, which is almost certainly global warming," he told Reuters on Tuesday.
http://www.reuters.com/...
Red Orbit points to human-caused destruction of the natural ecosystems with Asia, in addition to climate change.
Changes in climate may be a partial cause to the record rainfall that is wreaking havoc in Asia, but environmental experts say the destruction of ecosystems is more directly at fault for the severity of killer floods.
The devastating floods are becoming worse because of several factors, including deforestation, conversion of wetlands into farmlands and urban centers and the clogging of natural drainage systems, experts warn.
"You can’t just blame nature... humans have encroached on the natural flood plains," said Ganesh Pangare, Bangkok-based regional water and wetlands coordinator with the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Better management of flood plains would limit the human and economic costs of natural disasters, such as the record rains in Pakistan recently, said Pangare...
...Red Constantino, head of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities in Manila, said climate change is becoming a convenient way for Asian leaders to place blame elsewhere when natural disasters strike.
"When there is any big flooding it's become commonplace for climate change to be blamed when in fact many of the problems are fixable at the local level," said Constantino...
...Ganesh Pangare echoed this theme, saying investment in "natural infrastructure" was the only way to protect people from the impacts of potential climate change-induced floods.
Building walls to stop the floods is not the answer. "You have to invest in natural infrastructure -- forests, river basins, lakes, wetlands," he said.
http://www.redorbit.com/...
There are also political implications, well-discussed in the Arab News:
Mother Nature and Pakistani public are angry — the former because of the human disrespect toward her and the latter for what the failing democracy is doing to them. Both are angry — very, very angry.
For millennia, Nature has been working in her own coordinated but mysterious ways. According to "butterfly affect", it can bring a tornado in Florida from flapping of a butterfly’s wing in Beijing. The unchecked industrial development in recent centuries has put this coordination in jeopardy. For example, a group of scientists links the devastating floods in Pakistan, the scorching forest fire in Russia, and the torrential rains in China with the man-made global warming. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), this year is the warmest since reliable temperature records began in the mid-19th century.
The shattering heat wave in Russia has brought the worst drought in decades, which has disturbed world grain markets, driving wheat prices up at the fastest rate in more than 30 years. It made Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announce a grain export ban from Aug. 15 to Dec. 31. The heat wave also led to forest fires that have brought human miseries and death. The smoke from fires is likely to stoke global warming by hastening a thaw of Arctic ice causing unprecedented rains. It may also dust Himalayan glaciers with black soot that absorbs more heat than reflective snow and ice and so speeds a thaw causing floods in countries such as Pakistan.
It is the same story in China, where nearly 1,500 people have died in mudslides and flooding caused by heavy rains due, primarily, to a build-up of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels by releasing the heat-trapping carbon dioxide...
Over 20 million people have been affected by the flooding, and several thousands have died. Villages that had yet to fully recover from a devastating 2005 earthquake have been essentially washed away. And the rain continues to pour, destroying more lives and keeping rescue efforts from proceeding. Food prices in Pakistan have quadrupled, making basic nutrition unattainable for many. Even after the rain stops in Pakistan, these tragic events will continue to pile up casualties from starvation and disease.
The democratic government so far has not left a meaningful impression on the public as far as their day-to-day life is concerned. They find that the prices of normal commodities have soared, their income capacity has shrunken, the poverty has increased, their personal security has diminished and communal despondency has mushroomed. On the government side, they see that the good governance has vanished, its authority has melted, the corruption in its departments has multiplied, the law and order has disintegrated and the terrorism has spiraled up. In a nutshell, the government has lost its credibility, control and trust among the public...
Discussions have already started in print and electronic media in favor and against the results of relief provided to the earthquake victims. This time, the public will not take it lying down. After seeing the dismal response from the highest leadership during the initial days of the floods, the public sentiments have already steamed up. Soon, they will start shouting for food, water, shelter and basic amenities. The verbal promises by the leadership will not satisfy them. They will demand results. The vibrant media will be ready to project their anger and demands even with exaggeration. Would the government with its long list of poor record be able to satisfy them? This is the sixty four thousand dollar question...
The ball is in the court of the government that is facing not only the angry public but also the irritated Mother Nature.
http://arabnews.com/...