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Greenhouse
Effect
 A worldwide greenhouse effect might produce a dangerously warmer world.
Since the late 19th century, the average global temperature has increased
between 0.54° F and 1.08° F (0.3° C and 0.6° C). Internationally, 1990
was the hottest year on record since official weather records first started being
kept by the British in about 1860.
Estimates (估计)
of global average temperatures have projected (突出)
an
increase of as much as 9° F(5° C) before the year 2100. Such a rise in global temperature would produce new patterns
(模式)
and extremes of drought (干旱)
and rainfall, which would seriously disrupt (破坏)
food production.
This could potentially (潜在地)
cripple (削弱)
the North American corn belt (北美生产玉米的地带）, which
produces much of the world's grain, leading to much higher food prices,
and even less food for the Third World than they already have. However,
it would also mean that some countries which are further north would be
able to grow crops they had never been able to before, although there is
less land as you move north from the corn belt.
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The other serious worry
is that rising sea levels from the melting of the polar (极地的)
ice caps could
severely flood many countries. A rise in sea levels of one metre, which
many experts are predicting (预言)
by the year 2100 (and some as soon as 2030),
would flood 15 percent of Egypt, and 12 percent of Bangladesh (孟加拉国)
. The
Maldives (马尔代夫)
in the Indian Ocean would almost completely disappear. Most of
the countries which would suffer most from a rise in sea levels are the
poor island states, so the islands in the Caribbean (加勒比海), South Pacific,
Mediterranean and Indian Ocean have formed the Alliance (联盟)
of Small Island
States, AOSIS, so they have a louder voice in internatioanl politics and
can make the richer developed world listen to their problems. Closer to
home, Britain would lose most of East Anglia (英格兰的拉丁名称), and to protect the coast
line would cost an estimated 5 to 10 billion pounds.
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