Peru Feeling The Worst Of Warming's Direct Effects - NYT

[hatrack]

EDIT

For many Americans, combating climate change is at best a cause for green do-gooders and at worse something to be debated. But in a developing country like Peru, where many people live on the land and close to the edge, climate change is neither a hobby nor a question for debate. Peru's water reserves are the glaciers and snowpacked areas of the Andes. Since they have started to shrink, without replenishment, "we don't know what the future holds whether we're talking about the water we need for agriculture or for drinking or for our hydropower," Ferreyros said.

Peru's plant and animal species are also being affected. Its rain forests, mountains and varied terrain create microclimates that provide habitats for endemic species, which have evolved in isolation from one another. As climate change shifts the boundaries between these zones, species found nowhere else in the world are threatened and disappearing.

"Within the U.S. we worry about the impact of climate change when we suffer from coastal storms like Katrina. But we have the resources to adapt," said Glenn Prickett, a senior vice president at Conservation International. Countries like Peru not only feel the effects of climate change more, "but they also don't have the national resources to adapt."

Worse, to take advantage of high energy prices, Peru is allowing more oil and gas exploration. In other words, lacking a diverse range of products to export, Peru has to feed the very global oil addiction that is coming back to haunt it in the form of climate change. To combat climate change, we need to break our addiction to consuming oil, while developing countries need to break their addiction to selling it. We need a different lifestyle model, and they need a different development model. Unless we work on both, the "snow-capped Andes" will exist in history books than in guidebooks.

EDIT/END

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/opinions/ci_3983301

[WhiteTara]

1. time to turn off our air conditioners

sweat now or fry later?

[NJCher]

2. why not

Run your AC off solar?




Cher

[WhiteTara]

4. the feon in the ac is very harmful

and the heat thrown out of the back of the ac heat the outer surrounding air. time to turn off our air conditioners. Evaporative coolers are helpful. afternoon naps under the fan with a cool cloth are another way.

oh, and solar doesn't really work well in cooling. Solar refrigerators are unheard of. The process by which solar (dc) must be converted to ac is not efficient enough and doesn't produce enough electricity to run that. When I had my solar house (I loved it), I ran my refrigerator off propane.

edited to add a thought

[NJCher]

5. thanks for telling me about that

I'm checking into evaporative cooling. I'm making major changes with solar this year, so this info is a big help.




Cher

[WhiteTara]

6. you will love solar. If you are trying to be

fully self sufficient, I'd advise backup of wind energy, unless you are on a river, then a pelton (sp?) wheel is really great.

There is something very serene about not having the hum of ac. If it is possible, try to find lots of your equipment in 12volt, ceiling fans, stereos--some things you have to use ac: tvs, computers, dishwashers...my fridge was propane. It was totally silent. I think they have started making them with enough room inside now. The one I had was soooo small. My only real complaint.

[NJCher]

7. again, very helpful

I will do that.

My goal is not so much self-sufficiency as it just to lighten my environmental footprint. It sounds like you've really done a lot of experimenting and work with alternative energy.

BTW, did you read today about BP getting slapped upside the head for trying to corner the propane market? It's such a funny article that I may have to post it.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0606300165jun30,1,6948813.story?coll=chi-business-hed




Cher

[WhiteTara]

8. please do!

I'll look forward to reading it.
:hi:

[Vogon_Glory]

3. Today Peru, Tomorrow Great Basin and California

What is happening to Peru's glaciers today is what's already threatening to happen to the glaciers and snow pack of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas--the sources of water for Great Basin states like Utah, Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona as well as for California.

Why in Gehenna these people choose to follow climate change-denying Repugs as the evidence mounts up eludes me.