14 DAY TRIAL // Following a new scientific study commissioned by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), researchers have learned that Asia, in general, and especially its southeastern parts will be most severely affected by global warming and climate change until the end of the century. The shifts in weather patterns, sea levels and precipitation distribution that the area has experienced for millennia will cause the agriculture-based economies of countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines to shrink by as much as 6.7 percent each year, until the end of the century.
These four countries have been identified as being most at risk of being affected by global warming, on account of the fact that they share a number of geographical and demographical traits – all have large portions of coast exposed to rising sea levels, they all have large numbers of people living in those areas, and they all rely heavily on rice for the very survival of their populations. This dependency could be their undoing, the new report says, because these crops are very likely to start being constantly annihilated within a few years, as droughts, floods, and less rain will make it increasingly difficult to care for them.
The new paper also draws attention to the fact that the southeastern areas of Asia are very likely to experience a number of negative consequences to global warming and climate change, including economic and political turmoil, loss of food security, and so on. The report predicts a 8.6-degree-Fahrenheit (4.8-degree-Celsius) increase in average temperatures in the four countries by 2100. Together, the four nations would lose 965 square miles (2,500 square kilometers) of mangroves, which would be catastrophic both to them, and to the planet.
The document has also proposed a number of measures to address the issue, designed to avert such scenarios from ever coming true. Among them, the ADB document has included the construction of new irrigation networks, which could offer some type of insurance in the event precipitations do not fall for a prolonged period of time.
Other measures could include flood-control systems, to prevent large amounts of the stuff from destroying rice plantations, as well as early warning systems for such natural events. Such programs would cost some $5 billion per year until 2020, with the benefits becoming available by no sooner than 2050.