Climat Change - Ethical and Geopolitical Stakes Related to the Sea Level Rise

Résumé du document

We are at the edge of a disaster if we do not act », Ban Ki-Moon, General Secretary of United Nations, 2008. All the political personalities of the all countries of the world agree on a report today: our world is in full evolution. But twelve days in the Copenhagen climate conferenCce in 2009 were enough to sow the disorder between these countries and dividing them rather than to move closer them. The reason? Disagreements, competitivity, evolution and different needs and views of the future from about 170 countries. The objective was to keep the process of Kyoto (2012) on the line and sign a protocol.

Currently, global warming is the observed and projected increases in the average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans. In the 20th century, the temperature rose about 0.6° Celsius, a very high number. It has been caused by the increase of greenhouse gas concentrations (water vapor, CO², methane, ozone). The greenhouse gases contribute to the greenhouse effect and its largest contributing source is the burning of fossil fuels leading to the emission of carbon dioxide.

Today, every people of the developed countries know what means the global warming but not every people in the world. We are hearing and observing the changes but citizens don not really know what they have to do to make it changing.

What are the risks? What should we exactly do to fix it and live in a better world? There are some questions without answers for each person, but for the politicians too. They were waiting for new answers and new agreements as we did, but the Copenhagen conference was a failure. The life on the planet Earth was doubtless born in the water there are 4 billions of years.

Water is dominating our life, our breath, our survival. It is the universal solvent, it has a big power of cohesion, it possesses a huge slowness in the temperature variations, it loosens a lot of energy passing from the liquid to the gaseous state. The fresh and good quality water is a rare resource too at the world level. Obviously, it represents in certain regions of the world a geostrategic stake.

Extraits

[...] The hurricane Floyd in 1999 makes economic damage very important for the Bahamas (USA) The tropical storm of June of 2001 will make 47 deaths in the United States and will destroy houses and will cause 6.7 billion damage. The Jeanne cyclone makes 2000 deaths in Haiti and in Dominican Republic in September million persons are evacuated on the Florida coast. In Europe In France, a heat wave, with temperatures furthermore of 40°C will make more than deaths in AUGUST 2003. All Western Europe and of the Southwest undergoes this heat wave at the origin of deaths. [...]

[...] To illustrate our comment and the gravity of this situation, we used a simulator which allows us to analyze the situation in a chosen significant zone. We chose to focus on the Netherland because this country belongs to the European Union, its surface its more than and its population exceeds the 16 millions of inhabitants Here we can see the situation of the Netherlands before the rise of the sea level: An important part of this country is situated at an equal level even lower than that of the sea level thus, it is a country which will potentially be touched in a important way by an elevation of a meter. [...]

[...] The developing countries having fragile savings and institutions are the most threatened but the low coastal areas of the developed countries could be touched also seriously. Considering the current measures of protection, a 1 meter rise of the sea level would lead to ground losses which would be estimated in the following way : in Uruguay in Egypt in the Netherlands in Bangladesh and until approximately in the atoll Majuro. These various geographical areas will not be the only ones which will be affect. The rise of the sea level concerns all the islands and the coast areas. [...]

[...] Thus it's possible to observe that there is a constant retreat of mountain glacier through the world. So, effects are very obvious. For example, Kilimanjaro's glaciers are melting so quickly, the mountain lost nearly a quarter of its ice from 2000 to 2006. Moreover, some glaciers in the Andes are melting ten times faster than they did just 20 years ago. These consequences are really dramatic because, this tendency is applying on all mountain glacier, and it's important to know that 60% of soft water come from this glacier. [...]

[...] Actually, the environmental factors seem to be linked with other economic and political factors of migration. Depletion of soil and drought increase the phenomenon of the rural exodus. The loss of land may decline as a factor in migration policy, since it helps to trigger local conflicts. The rush of climatic migration will set nationally or regionally. International migration will concern a move to neighbouring countries. The policies which will be set up will take the factors of stability under consideration. [...]