Behind every statistic is a story: 1 meter sea level rise isn't an abstract thing, it means people in Bangladesh can't grow rice, farmers in the Nile Delta no longer have fields, Miami has a serious real estate problem, and entire island countries disappear. The Himalayan glaciers receding isn't just a scientific puzzle: today it means villagers in Nepal now have to walk twice as far for water; in coming decades it means floods as melting increases and droughts once it's done, all putting the food supplies of a billion people at risk.
There are countless examples like this, countless stories of the effects of climate change, pollution, and environmental degradation. These are some of those stories.
Latest Dispatches
Climate Change-Induced Drought Causing Crop Failure, Livestock Problems in Indian Himalayas
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY 
on 11.19.09
Less precipitation falling, and when it comes it falls in a shorter period of time... photo: Harry via flickr.
Compared to the focus on Arctic and Antarctic ice melting, glacial retreat and climate change in the Himalaya doesn't quite get the same coverage. Which, as a new survey by Indian NGO Navdanya shows, is a shame as the effects of global warming on the region are already directly impacting the lives of people who did nothing to create the problem:
(read the rest of "Climate Change-Induced Drought Causing Crop Failure, Livestock Problems in Indian Himalayas")From the Front Lines of Global Warming: California Firefighter Speaks (Video)
by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York on 11.18.09
Photo via ScrapeTV
The numbers aren't looking good--more and more Americans are ceasing to believe in the very real, scientifically proven threat of global warming. There are plenty of theories as to why this is--Americans' growing distrust of science, the powerful lobbying arms of the oil, coal, and manufacturing industries' documented ability to manufacture doubt, or a genuine inability of people to comprehend the concept of climate change. Whatever the case, a new approach seems to be in order--like hearing about the impacts of global warming from someone who's risked his life because of its effects? This California firefighter talks about the growing dangers of unmitigated global warming he sees every day. Video after the jump.
(read the rest of "From the Front Lines of Global Warming: California Firefighter Speaks (Video)")Multiyear Arctic Sea Ice Practically Gone - Not in the Future, Today
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 10.29.09
You can't navigate through multiyear ice... photo: arcticroute.com via flickr.
You've probably seen all sort of predictions about when the Arctic will see it's first ice-free summer in, umm, all of human history. Well, the University of Manitoba's David Barber, just returned from an expedition to examine multi-year ice in the Beaufort Sea, has told Reuters that, for all practical purposes we're already there:
(read the rest of "Multiyear Arctic Sea Ice Practically Gone - Not in the Future, Today ")Rising Temps Mean Malarial Mosquitos Infecting People on Mount Kenya (Video)
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 10.19.09
Last week it was house flies at the Mount Everest base camp, now it's mosquitos and malaria in the highlands around Mount Kenya that are in the spotlight, in this video clip from the UN Environment Programme. It's a short clip, but puts a human face on the sort of changes already being brought about by warmer temperatures:
(read the rest of "Rising Temps Mean Malarial Mosquitos Infecting People on Mount Kenya (Video)")With Each Passing Month the Situation Gets More Desperate: Climate Change Sinks Carteret Islanders
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 10.14.09
all photos courtesy Jennifer Redfearn
Though it may be a number of years before your life is personally impacted by climate change, for people in low-lying island nations and the world's great river deltas rising sea levels and saltwater ruining land is already a fact of life. One such place is the Carteret Islands off the coast of Papua New Guinea. TreeHugger recently interviewed documentary filmmaker Jennifer Redfearn about her work-in-progress Sun Come Up, which chronicles the efforts of these people to uproot their lives and find new homes:
(read the rest of "With Each Passing Month the Situation Gets More Desperate: Climate Change Sinks Carteret Islanders ")More Dispatches
House Flies at Everest Base Camp Effect of Warmer Temps
Just Two Cents From Every New Yorker Could Build Carteret Island's Climate Change Refugees New Homes
Bangladesh Environment Network Delivers Plea to UN: Stop Climate Change! Save Bangladesh!
20% of Mekong Delta Submerged With Rising Seas by 2100 - 10% of Ho Chi Minh City Will Go Under, Too
Nile Delta Poised to Be Sunk by Sea Level Rise - Groundwater Salinity Already a Growing Problem
Amazon Tribe Already Feels the Pinch From Climate Change & Deforestation
Climate Change Too Abstract For You? Dengue Fever Could Spread to 28 U.S. States
Global Warming is Shrinking the Soay Sheep of Scotland
Climate Change to Cause "Cultural Genocide" for Australia's Aborigines
Alaskan Eskimo Village Votes to Move Upstream to Avoid Climate Change Flooding
Bangladesh Tries Working With Nature to Stave Off Sea Level Rise
West Antarctic Glacier Disintegrating Rapidly: First Hand Account
