Thursday, October 31, 2013

Vulnerability to climate change map

Here's a map that should depress the hell out of anyone who has been following climate change news.  I am one of those people who has long believed that the manifestations of climate change are most noticeable the closer you get to the poles.  And so I have included reports of last summer's drought in the American Midwest, the floods in central Europe, and more recently I could have included the wildfires in Australia or the storm that smashed into Sweden with hurricane-force winds.

Well, if this map is correct (and there is no reason to believe it isn't) the areas I have believed to be especially ravaged by climate change are in fact the ones in pretty good shape.  My guess that my confusion is based on a perception bias caused by the fact that science gathering and news coverage of the climate crises is just better in places like Sweden and Germany than it is in Sierra Leone.  And considering how dangerous climate change has already become in places like Minnesota, it is frightening to image how bad it must be in Bangladesh.

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