Heating Up and Exposing a Divide

Poor countries will likely be most vulnerable to the changes brought about by global warming--an unfair result considering that wealthy nations are most responsible for emitting the greenhouse gases linked to rising temperatures.

A recent story in the NY Times looks at four different countries and how climate change affects them. In India, dramatic rains increasingly cause flooding. The country does not have the infrastructure to deal with the floods, and so the land is ravaged and people are suffocated and swept away by water. 

In the Netherlands, people build floating platforms to deal with rising seas--so half-million dollar homes are not ruined.

In Malawi, decrepit weather equipment makes it hard to measure changes. Drought is impacting backyard water supplies, and enforcement to protect available water supplies is nonexistent.

A drought also exists in Perth, Australia, but the country is about to open a plant that will use wind-power to turn seawater into drinking water. Such a plant would draw oohs and aahs, even though it would be less a result of magic and more a result of money.