Global Warming: Adapting to a New Reality

Something is amiss in Europe. Sickness-inducing algae in Genoa, severe flooding in central Europe, Portuguese wildfires, ticks carrying Lyme disease northward into Sweden – all are recent occurrences that scientists have attributed to global warming. Countries and politicians, faced with mounting evidence of the trend, are starting to consider the changes they will have to make in order to adapt to a warmer Europe. The expected consequences could be far more serious than converting Austrian ski resorts into golf courses and handing out free air conditioners to elderly Italian women. Planners of Copenhagen's new subway elevated all structures to allow for a 1.5-foot rise in sea level, which they expect to occur in the next century. One expert even warns that people in Northern or Southern Europe, where the effects of global warming will be most severe, could become "climate refugees," moving into the center of the continent.

Elisabeth Rosenthal
The International Herald Tribune, 15 September 2005