Waypoint: Shanghai, China: 31° 12′ 0″ N, 121° 30′ 0″ E

Shaghai, China

Shanghai will be underwater by 2100

Shanghai is seeing higher temperatures due to continuing global warming. A report by US-based research group Climate Central came out last week, outlining the consequences of global warming for the planet's coastal areas and mega-cities. It states that a 4 degree Celsius increase in the earth’s weather will cause sea levels to rise enough to submerge coastal areas, leaving 470 to 760 million people's homes underwater. Major cities such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, London, New York, Sydney and Mumbai could end up submerged by 2100 (timeoutshanghai.com).

Shanghai will be look like this if there's a 4 degree temperature increase

Commuters on a tricycle cross a flooded road outside a subway station in Shanghai China AP

Waypoint: The Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica: 69° 30′ 0″ S, 65° 0′ 0″ W

The Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica

Warming Temperatures are causing ice melt

The effects of global warming in Antarctica include rising temperatures and increasing snow melt. The continent-wide average surface temperature trend of Antarctica is positive and significant at >0.05 °C/decade since 1957. The West Antarctic ice sheet has warmed by more than 0.1 °C/decade in the last 50 years, and is strongest in winter and spring. Although this is partly offset by fall cooling in East Antarctica, this effect is restricted to the 1980s and 1990s. Research published in 2009 found that overall the continent had become warmer since the 1950s, a finding consistent with the influence of man-made climate change. The region of strongest warming lies along the Antarctic Peninsula (Wikipedia).

On warming Antarctic Peninsula, moss and microbes reveal unprecedented ecological change

Antarctic Peninsula summer melt season prolonged by global warming

Fast climate change on the Antarctic Peninsula has affected the base of the food chain

Waypoint: Queensland, Australia: 23° 0′ 0″ S, 143° 0′ 0″ E

Queensland, Australia

Drought and other issues caused by Climate Change

Drought has plagued parts of Australia since 2012 hurting agriculture and wild life. Climate change is making drought conditions worse affecting people’s health and hurting the agriculture industry. Since the mid-1990s, Australia has seen a 15% drop in rainfall during late autumn and early winter and a 25% drop in April and May. The severe droughts are even being linked to suicide. Climate change is not only causing drought, it is also affecting the ocean causing acidification which puts the Great Barrier Reef at great risk. Glacier melt in Antarctica is causing the sea level to raise affect Australian coast. Fires are a problem that comes with drought (theguardian.com). 

Climate Change Makes Droughts in Australia Worse

Embers glow after a bushfire in the Adelaide Hills in January, the worst the area has seen in decades. Photograph: Brenton Edwards/AFP/Getty Images

Waypoint: Bangladesh: 23° 48′ 0″ N, 90° 18′ 0″ E

Bangladesh is now widely recognized to be one of the countries that is most vulnerable to climate change. Natural hazards that come from increased rainfall, rising sea levels, and tropical cyclones are expected to increase as climate changes, each seriously affecting agriculture, water and food security, human health and shelter.  It is believed that in the coming decades the rising sea level alone will create more than 20 million climate refugees. Bangladeshi water is contaminated with arsenic frequently because of the high arsenic contents in the soil. Up to 77 million people are exposed to toxic arsenic from drinking water. Source: wikipedia

Waypoint: Kiribati: 1° 25′ 0″ N, 173° 0′ 0″ E

Kiribati Islands

Rising Sea Level

Kiribati, a tiny Pacific island nation, became the first nation to declare that global warming has made their island uninhabitable. Last summer they started evacuating its people, the first climate refugees. Home to some 100,000 people, they are losing the battle. Rising sea levels are contaminating their fresh water supplies and crop soil. They have purchased a island of Fiji to move to. 

President of Kiribati Anote Tong on climate change: "It's too late for us" on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS – CNN Press Room - CNN.com Blogs

Building beach barriers on Kiribati. Global Environment Facility (GEF)/Flickr

In Kiribati, climate change is a fact of life – and often a scary one for young people wondering what the future will bring. Source: unicef

Waypoint: Niger Delta: 5° 19′ 34″ N, 6° 28′ 15″ E

Niger Delta

Even though Africa accounts for less than 4% of the world's annual greenhouse gas emissions, they bare a lot of the burden. Here are some ways the International Panel on Climate Control Change, the IPCC, predict what will happen to Africa:

1. Farming will be harder-higher temperatures and unpredictable rain

2. Farming will be easier in highland countries.

3. Malnutrition-growing population can not keep up with struggling agricultural

4. Malaria-insects will thrive in higher temperature

5. Water shortages due to drought.

consequences of climate change and climate variability in the Niger River Basin
Source: www.tyndall.ac.uk

Study shows projected climate change in West Africa not likely to worsen malaria situation
Source: news.mit.edu

climate change lead to diminishing water levels and water scarcity. Less water means less fish, less fodder and fewer cattle and other household uses Source: africa.wetlands.org

Waypoint: Bickmore, West Virginia, Fola Coal Company Mountain Top Removal Site: 38°19'28.98"N 81° 0'21.26"W

West Virginia

Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining

Coal mining is a major contributor to climate change but the areas where the coal is mined from is very much affected by global warming. I wanted to add this stop on this VFT because it is a global warming hot spot and because this is where I live. This MTR site is about 10 miles from my home in Clay County, WV. 

Over half of our electrical power, in the US, comes from coal and a large percentage of that coal comes from West Virginia. Of the nearly 150 million tons of coal extracted each year from the state's mines, an increasing amount comes from surface mining and mountaintop removal. Mountaintop removal can have serious impacts on the health of local people. The pollution of groundwater by mine runoff and exposure to airborne toxins and dust, and on the environment, through permanent loss of critical ecosystems, destruction of forests and loss of streams. Scientific evidence suggests that these impacts are pervasive and irreversible and that efforts to reclaim the disturbed land can't make up for the impacts felt by the mining process (wvpublic.org).