• Orange and red show the areas where the risk of human induced desertification is higher. As it can be immediately seen, the most affected areas are along the equator line in Africa. Developing countries such as India and the Middle East and Eastern Europe are also thought to be affected.
• This also goes together with natural deforestation and desertification.
• Desertification and droughts are major causes of ecosystem losses and species mass migration or extinction.

• Not only does the melting of ice caps lead to a direct ecosystem loss, it also has, together with the melting of glaciers, an effect on the rise of the average sea level.
• Sea level rise impacts directly all those costal environments and ecosystems. Many islands would potentially disappear.

• Since 1979 more than 20% of the Polar ice cap has melted away.
• Satellite observations show a very dramatic and worrying trend with a melting of the Arctic ice cap of about 30%. If this trend followed, all the ice cap would probably melt by the end of this decade.

Buckminster Fuller Lessons Learned and Impacts Today Event Notes from June 5th 2012

Peter Meisen in Solar Valley China