The challenges of Global warming

We have noted in the course of our discussion that Global warming is not the only environmental problem. For instance, coastal regions are liable to subsidence for other reasons; water supplies in many places are already being depleted faster than they are being replenished and agricultural land is being lost through soil erosion. Many other reasons, locally and regionally, could be listed for the occurrence of environmental degradation. However, the importance of Global warming is not diminished by the existence of these other environmental problems; in fact their existence will generally exacerbate its effects – as, for instance, we noted on page 150 when looking at the effect of sea level rise on Bangladesh. It is generally beneficial to tackle all related environmental problems together.

Local degradation of the environment is generally the result of particular action in the locality. To give an example, subsidence occurs because of the over-extraction of groundwater.