Tag: climate change

The Future of Life by Edward Wilson — a book review

The book The Future of Life is a piece of inarguably high standard, concentration of knowledge and wisdom. It is a rich and comprehensive display of scientific arguments finely knitted with strong facts and truth, forming persuasive logical coherence on the subject — biodiversity, human-nature relationship and future advancement of life on Earth. Edward Wilson’s deep love and life-long passion towards nature are seen throughout the book, presented by fascinating details of nature, species, and human discoveries. It is categorised as a book of life/environmental sciences, but Wilson brought it out as if it was some most private and emotional stories. The book reached both great vastness and depth in its field of study. Wilson did not try to tell us what exactly the future of life will be. He outlined the possibilities and the logical assumption for readers to echo about the future in their own head. But at the same time, he did tell us what the future of life will possibly be like, by bringing the readers to as close as what he can possibly foresee with his scientific certainty and inspire those who read with an open mind. For this reason, the book has achieved its purpose.

Water challenges in the Himalayan Region-Basin and future prospects

The article analysed major river runoffs, glacier mass loss, precipitation and surface temperature changes in the Himalaya region. The paper’s quantitative analysis of historical precipitation matched the result run by the climate model CMIP 5. Decreasing precipitation and rising surface temperature as results of climate change have cost the Himalaya region glacier retreats and shrunk river runoffs. The living environment for 40 million local residents has become drier in dry areas and wetter in wet areas. Hot and cold extremes have been putting additional challenges to them. Future projections suggest more radical glacier retreats and increasing precipitation, which can be catastrophic to the local livelihoods. The paper also gave suggestions on future solutions to the intensifying water challenges from financial, political and social perspectives. Both international support and local effort are needed to overcome the current water challenges that the Himalaya region is facing. Possible solutions include financial supports to improve infrastructure, actions to ratify mitigation targets, green energy development and good community practices in water use.