MAP REVEALS CLIMATE CHANGE INJUSTICE
WORLD'S SIXTH MASS EXTINCTION MAY BE UNDERWAY
This week science news has presented us with some very disturbing realizations. In the first news article, a graduate student has compiled data on temperature changes and population. The map he made from this data shows the areas that will have the worst impact of amount of temperature change per capita. This is not a complete map due to missing data but what we do see is that the temperature change is not going to be fair. The areas that are going to be most hurt from the change are also areas that are contributing the least amount of greenhouse gases. This means that all the larger countries who are pumping gas into the air are causing more problems for other developing countries rather than creating problems for themselves. One take away message from the data is that there is "concrete quantitative evidence of the disparity between the causes and the consequences of climate change at a national level," Jason Samson says.
The next piece of news provides us with the disturbing fact that we may actually be seeing the sixth mass extinction on Earth. There have been five previous extinctions at a global level and the current one is most likely due to climate change and anthropogenic sources. Humans have destroyed habitats and introduced evasive species all over the world and it is all leading toward more and more species going extinct. This research is just another reason that we need to change the way we are doing things. One of the most disturbing parts of the study is that this current mass extinction is going at a rate much faster than any of the previous ones.
