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Living with climate change

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Subido el 19 de septiembre de 2007 por EducaMadrid

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Global warming is happening. Temperatures have already risen by 0.76 degrees since the industrial revolution and are projected to rise further by 1.8 - 4 degrees by the end of the century. The last time climate change happened at this pace was 125,000 years ago and led to a 4-6 metre sea level rise.

Global warming at the upper end of the scale predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change would have catastrophic consequences for Europe. Up to 30% of plant, animal and bird species would be wiped out and the threat of natural disasters such as landslides, floods and mudslides would increase significantly.

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This is the resort of Engelberg in the heart of the Swiss Alps. 00:00:00
Hundreds of thousands of visitors come here every year to ski, hike and relax 00:00:05
amidst some of the most stunning mountain scenery in the world. 00:00:10
These Indian tourists have come to Engelberg to see snow for the first time. 00:00:13
For many it may also be the last time because the snow and ice that make this 00:00:18
one of the most iconic and photographed places on earth 00:00:22
is melting fast. 00:00:25
Christoph Bissig is in charge of peace preparation and mountain rescue on the 00:00:28
Titlis resort 00:00:31
that rises 2,000 meters above Engelberg. 00:00:32
We are having shorter seasons up here. We have to fight to 00:00:36
be able to keep the ski season earlier open. In the olden days 00:00:40
we started in October and even before ten years ago the people 00:00:44
still been skiing all year round up here. We stopped that about seven years ago 00:00:50
We carried on with a little terrain park for snowboarders 00:00:55
in a small area but we stopped that too because it just gets too slushy. 00:00:58
The other thing is there hasn't been much 00:01:03
not enough snow fallen over the winters 00:01:07
and that's why the reason we stopped skiing and snowboarding for the summer. 00:01:10
Less snowfall is not only bad news for skiers who have to climb higher and 00:01:15
higher in search of peace 00:01:20
it's bad news for the Alpine economy which depends on tourism. 00:01:21
60 to 80 million tourists descend on the Alps every year 00:01:25
mainly for skiing holidays. But lack of snow 00:01:29
could lead to the closure of dozens of low-lying resorts such as Negev in France 00:01:33
and Kitzbühel in Austria. Here in Engelberg peace operators have covered part of the 00:01:37
glacier in a white fleece 00:01:43
to stop it melting in summer. But with less snow and warmer temperatures 00:01:44
the rest of the glacier will continue to retreat. When I started here 00:01:48
15 years ago we had about 20 meters high 00:01:52
big seracs sort of continually breaking down on those days 00:01:55
and the last 15 to 17 years the whole 00:02:00
glacier has been retreating to about 200 meters further up the hill. 00:02:03
It's incredible. 00:02:08
One of the major attractions on Mount Titlis is this ice cave 00:02:11
carved out of a glacier 3,000 meters above sea level. 00:02:15
But as the glacier retreats cracks are beginning to appear on the cave's ceilings. 00:02:19
For us it is a really sad story to see it go so 00:02:23
rapidly going down because we're living off it, we love the glacier 00:02:27
in a way it's sort of, even if you look up from the valley 00:02:32
you see in the summertime it's white, a white cap and a mountain sort of, if you don't 00:02:35
if you don't see that anymore it's a big loss for the mountain region for 00:02:40
areas which really live off tourism. 00:02:45
It's a similar story of glacial retreat across the Alps. 00:02:49
This is the Steingletscher Glacier on the other side of Mount Titlis. 00:02:53
It used to occupy the whole of this valley. Now a lake has formed where the 00:02:57
glacier's snout used to be. 00:03:00
Michael Zemp, a glaciologist at the University of Zurich is the author of a 00:03:03
major study on the effects of climate change on alpine glaciers. 00:03:07
The report doesn't make for happy reading. 00:03:11
The mean annual thickness loss of glaciers 00:03:13
after the end of the so-called Little Ice Age around 1850 was about 25 centimetres. 00:03:18
Since the 1980s 00:03:25
glaciers in the European Alps lost about 00:03:28
75 centimetres per year. 00:03:31
Since 2000 glaciers lost about 00:03:34
one metre of ice thickness each year 00:03:38
and in the year 2003 when we had this extreme heat wave in summer 00:03:41
glaciers in the Alps lost about 2.5 metres in one single year. 00:03:45
Glaciers are bellwethers of climate change and even a small temperature 00:03:50
increase can have devastating results. 00:03:54
In the European Alps we lost about 50 percent of the glacier cover since the 00:03:57
end of so-called Little Ice Age around 1850 00:04:01
and the temperature increase since then 00:04:04
was about 1 to 1.5 degrees Celsius in the Alps. 00:04:07
And when we imagine now that the scenarios 00:04:13
range between a further increase in temperature by another degree 00:04:16
up to another six degrees Celsius by the end of this century 00:04:21
then we can imagine what this would mean. 00:04:25
The Alps are already warming three times faster than the rest of the globe and 00:04:29
Dr. Zemp calculates that a three degree increase in temperature 00:04:33
could lead to the loss of 80 percent of alpine glacier cover by the end of the 00:04:36
century 00:04:40
resulting in more floods and landslides in spring and less water for 00:04:41
Switzerland's agriculture and energy needs in summer. 00:04:44
Higher temperatures could also melt the permafrost many pylons and cable car 00:04:49
supports are embedded in 00:04:53
leading to higher repair and insurance costs. 00:04:54
Sea levels have already risen by 20 centimetres and could mount by as much as 00:04:59
80 centimetres by the end of the century 00:05:03
and by up to seven metres if the Greenland ice sheet melts. 00:05:05
This is what would happen to England, Belgium and the Netherlands without 00:05:09
flood protection 00:05:12
and this is the effect of a one and eight metre rise in sea levels. 00:05:13
Melting of ice, increasing sea levels 00:05:19
is also a long-term threat which will physically change the landscape of 00:05:23
Europe and the landscape of the world. 00:05:26
If Greenland melts, a sea level rise of up to seven metre 00:05:28
is being predicted, is being forecasted 00:05:32
you cannot adapt to that one, you can build dikes a little bit higher 00:05:35
to accommodate 50 centimetre, probably one metre sea level at maximum in the 00:05:38
Netherlands and somewhere, but seven metre you can't adapt to. 00:05:42
You have to evacuate people, you have to evacuate 00:05:44
cities like Cairo, like New York, like London, like Hamburg, like Rome. 00:05:46
Too much water is a fantasy for farmers in the Murcia area of southern Spain 00:05:51
which is one of Europe's hottest and driest regions. 00:05:55
Without irrigation this area would be a desert 00:05:58
but to keep such regions fertile almost 90% of Spain's freshwater resources are needed. 00:06:01
Farmers such as Antonio Moreno Soriano are already struggling with harsh 00:06:07
climatic conditions. Global warming will only make matters worse. 00:06:11
Murcia is often referred to as La Huerta de Europa. 00:06:31
This is where much of the continent's fresh fruit and vegetables come from 00:06:38
but with studies predicting up to 40% less rainfall a year in Spain 00:06:42
how long will this region remain Europe's orchard? 00:06:46
This area of Spain is booming. A decade ago there were two golf courses 00:06:50
now 70 are planned. 800,000 second homes have been built in recent years 00:06:54
to cater for northern Europeans in search of more clement weather. 00:06:59
The result is that farmers are often in direct conflict with the owners of 00:07:03
hotels, golf courses and holiday homes for 00:07:06
precious water resources. 00:07:09
The migration of tens of millions of northern Europeans to the Mediterranean 00:07:13
coast is the biggest annual movement of 00:07:17
people on the planet. Here in the mega resort of Benidorm on 00:07:19
Spain's southeast coast tourists arrive all year round to soak 00:07:22
up the sun. But with annual average temperatures in 00:07:25
this part of the world expected to rise by up to five degrees by the end of the 00:07:28
century will this corner of Europe become too 00:07:32
hot for them? This is a map produced for the EU showing 00:07:34
the conditions for summer tourism in Europe at present. 00:07:38
The red and brown parts are very good or excellent for tourism 00:07:41
while the blue parts are less attractive. The next map shows the projection for 00:07:45
the end of the century based on a global 3.4 degree increase 00:07:48
in temperatures during this century. Note how the North Sea and Baltic area 00:07:52
become much more appealing to holiday makers 00:07:56
while the Mediterranean becomes less enticing. 00:07:58
Climate change will have more sinister effects than changing holiday patterns. 00:08:01
In Europe more than 70,000 people died prematurely during the 2003 heat wave 00:08:05
and increased temperatures could lead to thousands more deaths a year in 00:08:10
southern Europe. Forest fires will also become more 00:08:13
frequent across large swathes of the continent 00:08:17
and many bird and animal species will become extinct as natural habitats are 00:08:19
wiped out. Climate change will have in the view of 00:08:23
the real experts a tremendous negative impact on 00:08:28
biodiversity reducing it by they say approximately 00:08:32
30 percent. This is a catastrophe of major 00:08:37
proportions. Poor countries will suffer the most from 00:08:41
climate change as soaring temperatures melting glaciers and falling rainfall 00:08:45
leads to lower crop yields, less drinking water and greater 00:08:48
starvation. The prospect of tens of millions of 00:08:52
environmental refugees escaping harsh climatic conditions 00:08:55
is no longer the realm of sci-fi films. It's for real. 00:08:59
Many are already adapting to the effects of climate change. 00:09:05
In the Danube basin between Vienna and Bratislava authorities are removing 00:09:08
artificial boulders to allow the river to flood naturally 00:09:11
creating a wildlife rich natural park and preventing flooding in cities. 00:09:14
And in the Murcia region of Spain farmers irrigate their crops using a 00:09:20
computerized water card that's helped reduce water consumption 00:09:23
by 30 percent. The European Commission believes the 00:09:26
quicker we adapt to climate change the better. 00:09:30
The cost of acting today is significantly less than it is to 00:09:33
to clean up tomorrow. In our calculation 00:09:38
we can actually act against climate change 00:09:41
at a very small cost to our economy. 00:09:45
Global warming is a fact. Temperatures have already risen by 0.76 degrees since 00:09:50
the industrial revolution and are projected to rise further by 00:09:56
1.8 to 4 degrees by the end of the century. 00:09:59
Deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions are needed urgently to prevent a climate 00:10:02
catastrophe but this will not solve the problem in 00:10:06
the short term. The negative effects of global warming 00:10:08
will be felt for centuries due to the inherent inertia in the 00:10:12
climate system. The real question is no longer how to 00:10:14
stop the damage but how to limit it. The most cost-effective way to do this 00:10:18
is to act now rather than later. 00:10:22
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Idioma/s:
en
Niveles educativos:
▼ Mostrar / ocultar niveles
      • Nivel Intermedio
Autor/es:
The European Union
Subido por:
EducaMadrid
Licencia:
Reconocimiento - No comercial - Sin obra derivada
Visualizaciones:
709
Fecha:
19 de septiembre de 2007 - 16:44
Visibilidad:
Público
Enlace Relacionado:
European Commission
Duración:
10′ 27″
Relación de aspecto:
4:3 Hasta 2009 fue el estándar utilizado en la televisión PAL; muchas pantallas de ordenador y televisores usan este estándar, erróneamente llamado cuadrado, cuando en la realidad es rectangular o wide.
Resolución:
448x336 píxeles
Tamaño:
24.57 MBytes

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