"Six Degrees Til Doom"

If the earth warms by one degree,

1. the Arctic will be ice free for half a year.
2. 10,000 and more homes are flooding near the Bay of Bengal.
3. hurricanes will start hitting the South Atlantic.
4. severe droughts causes shortage in global grains and meat markets.
5. we are getting closer to the tipping points.
6. NASA's climate scientist James Hansen was the first to find out about the seriousness of global warming.
7. The reality of climate change is, its the pace of climate change today that is unprecedented.

If the earth gets warmer by two degrees,

1.  changes to biosphere are no longer gradual.
2.  so much ice is melted making it difficult for the polar bears to survive.
3. insects migrate in strange new directions.
4. pine beetles kill of the white bark forest.
5. impacts on the marine ecosystem are going to be more severe.

If the earth gets warmer by three degrees,

1. the arctic will be ice free all summer.
2. the amazon rain forest is drying out.
3. snow caps on the Alps will disappear.
4. weather patterns become. 
5. the Mediterranean and parts of Europe wither in serious summer heat.
6. heat waves could be the norm.
7. 2003's heat wave in France was the first catastrophic wave due to global warming so far killing thousands of people in a rich country.

If the earth gets warmer by four degrees,

1. oceans rise  overtaking heavily populated areas.
2. Bangladesh could be washed away.
3. Egypt detonated!
4. Venice submerged!
5. Glaciers disappear shutting down of fresh water to millions of people.
6. Northern Canada becomes bountiful agricultural zone.
7. the entire west ice sheet could collapse leading sea level to rise further.
8. world plus four degrees, we could see a world which is totally unrecognizable to us.
9. if the earth gets four degrees warmer, the most important rivers could be self destructive starting from the high mount glaciers to the Indian ocean.
10. Himalayan rivers are the well spring of life to people in China and India.
11. scientists predict that India could be one of the the country where the impact of global warming would take its greatest toll.
12. unless we begin slowing the global warming in less than four decades, Ganges could be the river fighting for its own life.

If the earth gets warmer by five degrees,

1. snow pack and aqua first that feed the world's major cities are drying out.
2. climate refugees line up in hundred millions.
3. its going to be inconvenience to human civilization to withstand this type of a climatic shock.
4. the world could become a twilight zone.
5. traditional social systems could break down.

if the earth gets warmer by six degrees,

1. oceans might appear "bright blue" from a distance.
2. natural disasters become "common events."
3. some of the greatest cities are "flooded and abandoned."
4. if the world gets warmer by six degrees in one century, we will experience nothing more than a "global wipe out."
5. six degrees of warming have been called the "doomsday scenario."
6. our lives would never be the same again.

 

SOURCE: THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL