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Creative Glass Designs PART II

Creative Glass Designs

The Amazon is the largest rainforest on the planet, covering 3.4 million square miles over nine nations and home to 20 percent of all plant and animal species in the world. Over the past 30 years, however, nearly 373,000 square miles of the rainforest have been felled in Brazil alone. At that rate, more than 30 percent of the forest could be gone by mid century.

Bering Sea, Russia and U.S.A

The Bering Sea provides almost half the seafood caught in the U.S. and is also home to sea lions, walruses, polar bears, endangered whales, and more than 30 species of seabird. The warming of the oceans could have a substantial impact on its biodiversity: in the northern reaches, there is already less ice than just a few decades ago, and it melts earlier.

Panama Canal, Panama

When the Panama Canal opened in 1914, it revolutionized shipping by providing an alternative to the southern route around Cape Horn. About 4 percent of world trade now passes through the canal. Raising and lowering ships between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which differ by 85 feet in elevation, requires vast amounts of increasingly scarce fresh water. Shortages have forced several closures in recent years.

Valdes Peninsula, Argentina

Each winter, thousands of Southern Right Whales migrate from their feeding grounds near Antarctica to breed in the ValdÈs peninsula, alongside large colonies of sea lions and elephant seals. Krill, the whales’ main source of food, are threatened by higher ocean temperatures and melting sea ice around the Antarctic, which would in turn hurt the whales’ chances of survival.

Monteverde Cloud Forest, Costa Rica

For most of the year, the humidity level in this tropical forest reaches 100 percent. With majestic trees festooned with orchids, bromeliads, ferns, vines, and mosses, it’s home to a multitude of rare animal and plant species. Rising temperatures are expected to upset this fragile balance, with detrimental effects on the biodiversity that has flourished here for centuries.

Honduras

The most mountainous country in Central America, Honduras contains some of the world’s richest land for growing coffee and bananas, vital exports for this poor nation. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch killed nearly 6,000 people, obliterated much of the country’s infrastructure, and destroyed crops. Three other hurricanes have since surpassed Mitch in severity.