In 1998-1999, I served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Mongolia. A "News Focus" article in the February 1 issue of Science explores how climate change is affecting Mongolia. The author, John Bohannon, notes that "Winter temperatures in Mongolia have increased a staggering 3.6 degrees C on average during the past 60 years." That's a lot more warming locally than the global average. Areas of permafrost are melting, turning solid ground to mush. This yields forests of trees tipped over at drunken angles. Might sound okay -- after all, Mongolia's really cold, and not so good for agriculture. But at the same time, "Four of the worst drought years on record in Mongolia occurred in the past decade," and they've had several extremely harsh winter storms (called zud) which have killed off huge numbers of livestock and precipitated near-famine conditions in some regions. As Bohannon notes, "the livestock losses spurred a wave of suicides
among herders." Because I have a personal history in Mongolia, news like this affects me in a way other than as a pure scientist. In fact, I'd have to say I look at climate change through two totally different lenses: (1) as a scientist, I think it's fascinating to see it all the changes that the Earth system is experiencing in this interesting time, but (2) as a citizen of human society, I'm rather worried about it all. And when it hits folks like the good people of Mongolia like it is, it really drives home that humans need their environment. As Will Durant glibly put it, "civilization exists by geologic consent, subject to change without notice."

Reference:

Bohannon, John (1 February 2008). "The Big Thaw Reaches Mongolia's Pristine North." Science 319 (5863), 567. DOI: 10.1126/science.319.5863.567

Labels: global warming, mongolia