Discuss any two examples of island nations that have been affected by a rising s

Question

1. Discuss any two examples of island nations that have been affected by a rising sea level. What are some of the socio-economic challenges these island nations face? List your references (at least three references are required).
2. Discuss two locations in the world where coral bleaching is occurring. What is the future of this important ecosystem in the light of climate change and global warming? List your references (at least three references are required).
3. Discuss any two impacts of climate change on global food production and possible adaptation processes. List your references (at least three references are required).
4. The KYOTO Protocol (of which the United States is not a signatory) has established guidelines for the reduction of these six greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N20), hydro fluorocarbons (HFCs), per fluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).Select any two of these gases and discuss their sources. Assume that your country has implemented or will implement the Kyoto Protocol and give possible suggestions on how to reduce the emission of the two gases you have chosen. List your references (at least three references are required).

Explanation / Answer

1.

Dire climate change predictions may seem like science fiction in many parts of the world. But in the tiny, sea-swept Pacific nation of Tuvalu, the crisis has already arrived.

Tuvalu consists of nine low-lying atolls totaling just 26 square kilometers, or 10 square miles, and in the past few years the "king tides" that peak in February have been rising higher than ever. Waves have washed over the island's main roads; coconut trees stand partly submerged; and small patches of cropland have been rendered unusable because of encroaching saltwater.

The government and many experts already assume the worst: Sometime in the next 50 years, if rising sea-level predictions prove accurate, the entire 11,800-strong population will have to be evacuated.

The ocean could swallow Tuvalu whole, making it the first country to be wiped off the map by global warming.

But in one respect, the Tuvaluans may actually be the lucky ones - at least compared with some of their Pacific island neighbors. The New Zealand government already takes in a quota of Tuvaluans every year, many of whom have found jobs in the strawberry fields and packing plants around Auckland. And it has assured Tuvalu that it will absorb the entire population if the worst comes to pass.

That is a lifeline that many similarly threatened island nations - including Kiribati, Vanuatu, the Marshall Islands, the Cook Islands, Fiji and the Solomon Islands - do not yet have.

While their stories may not be as compelling as Tuvalu's, such nations include atolls that may also vanish. And they depend on vulnerable, low-lying coastal areas for living space, cropland and tourism. For them, even conservative estimates of rising waters look set to make life on once-idyllic islands increasingly nasty, crowded and very, very wet.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/25/drowning-nations-sea-level-rise_n_1783931.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/world/asia/03iht-pacific.2.5548184.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1280424/

2.

Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef along the coast of Australia experienced bleaching events in 1980, 1982, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, and 2006. Some locations suffered severe damage, with up to 90% mortality. The most widespread and intense events occurred in the summers of 1998 and 2002, with 42% and 54% respectively of reefs bleached to some extent, and 18% strongly bleached. However coral losses on the reef between 1995 and 2009 were largely offset by growth of new corals. An overall analysis of coral loss found that coral populations on the Great Barrier Reef had declined by 50.7% from 1985 to 2012, but with only about 10% of that decline attributable to bleaching, and the remaining 90% caused about equally by tropical cyclones and by predation by crown-of-thorns starfishes.

The IPCC's moderate warming scenarios (B1 to A1T, 2

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