Climate Change Casualties

The evidence keeps getting stronger that climate change brought about by global warming is likely to cause disruptions in food production and mass migrations of some people from their homes and homelands within the next century. The latest article, in the January issue of Scientific American, describes three critical “hot spots” to watch – Mozambique, already experiencing more frequent droughts and floods; the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam, a rich farming area that is likely to face severe floods and loss of food production as the sea level rises; and Mexico and Central America, likely to be hit with increased numbers of tropical storms and crippling droughts.

Do we have the will to do something about climate change? Frankly, I’m not sure we do – the problem of global warming is still seen by many nations as either not severe enough, slow to develop, or not their fault (or at least not sufficiently their fault). Most nations have other more urgent issues to worry about first.

My prediction is that nations will spend more money over the next century dealing with the disastrous effects of climate change than they will in joining together to prevent the problems from ever happening in the first place. I sincerely hope I’m wrong.

But then, I won’t be here to see it, will I?