Six Degrees Could Change The World

Actor Alec Baldwin narrates a movie created by National Geographic, which is based on Mark Lynas’ most recent book, “Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet.” The movie also includes many scientists that believe that this theory will come true if the U.S. and many industrial countries continue to pollute and mistreat the environment.

Here are some brief effects of what a single degree can do:

1. Degree One:

• The Arctic is ice-free for half the year, opening the “Northwest Passage” for ships
• Thousands of homes around the Bay of Bengal are flooding
• Hurricanes begin to hit the South Atlantic
• Severe droughts in Western U.S. cause shortages in grain and meat markets

2. Degree Two:

• Changes to the Biosphere are no longer gradual
• Glaciers in Greenland disappear
• Polar bears struggle to survive as ice melts
• Insects migrate in strange places
• Forests replace Canada’s tundra

3. Degree Three:

• The Arctic is ice-free all summer
• The Amazon rain forest is drying out
• Snow caps on the Alps disappear
• El Nino’s weather patterns are more severe
• The Mediterranean and parts of Europe are very hot during the summer
• Summer heat waves will be the norm

4. Degree Four:

• Oceans rise and wipe out highly populated deltas
• Bangladesh, Egypt, and Venice, Italy are underwater
• Glaciers disappear, depleting the supply of fresh water to millions of people
• Canada becomes the world’s most agricultural booming zones
• A Scandinavian beach is now “paradise”
• The Western Antarctic Ice Sheet could collapse, which could cause even higher rising sea levels

5. Degree Five:

• Deserts form in once temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere
• Hundreds of millions of people become climate refugees

6. Degree Six:

• Oceans become “Marine Wastelands”
• More deserts spread quickly across continents
• Natural disasters become common events
• Some of the world’s greatest cities are flooded and abandoned

For more information on how we’re killing ourselves faster, visit the following link:
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/sixdegrees/