The World As We Know It | Green Energy News

August 11, 2002 – Vol.7 No.20

THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT.

According to a United Nations study, a two-mile thick Asian Brown Cloud blankets much of South Asia. The cloud of pollution from the burning of fossil fuels, wood, and dung-burning stoves as well as forest clearing may be causing the premature deaths of a half-million people in India alone. Aside from respiratory illnesses, the Cloud may also be altering rainfall patterns in the area - more and greater droughts and floods.

The rest of the world should keep an eye on the horizon, too. The pollution cloud can travel half-way around the world in a week’s time.

According to a report by the U.S. National Climatic Data Center, nearly half of the land in the lower 48 contiguous states is now being affected by a persistent and worsening moderate to extreme drought, 37 percent a severe to extreme drought.

According to news reports from reputable agencies, the floods in Europe are the worst centuries, depending on the location. The Czech Hydrological Institute claims flooding has exceeded statistics observed in the past 175 years when record keeping began. The floods in Dresden, Germany are the worst since 1849. Monsoon rains and landslides in parts of Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria and Russia, have caused more than one hundred deaths.

Back on his 1600 acre ranch in a month-long vacation (possibly fishing in his stocked, man-made lake) President George Bush is still contemplating an invasion of Iraq, despite misgivings of some in his own party and experienced notables such as Henry Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft, his father’s National Security Advisor.

One possible scenario for a war in Iraq: Eventual victory could put governance of the country in U.S. hands for some time as the nation rebuilt. While initially the war would cause a spike in world oil prices, when the war was over oil production would likely increase under U.S. control. The price of oil (and of course gasoline) would drop globally. Good for oil import dependent economies, like the U.S. But bad for other oil exporting countries as revenues slump under low per-barrel prices. And of course bad for the global environment with the increased consumption of low-cost fuel and its subsequent pollution.

Visit the United Nations Environment Programme at http://www.unep.org/, the U.S. National Climatic Data Center at http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html (click What’s New)