The way we live effects the entire planet, not just the United States. Although China emits more CO2 than the United States, they have far more people than we do. In 2006, China produced 6,200m tonnes of CO2, compared with 5,800m tonnes from the US. China's per capita emissions are only about a quarter of those of the United States. China's population is 1.3 billion against a U.S. population of 300 million.

Pre capita, the United States is by far the biggest contributor to global warming world wide. The unfortunately truth is, those effects are being felt around the globe, not just here in our country. Even the one degree warmth out planet has endured has cause glaciers to melt which could deplete water supply to many parts of the world. Some of these civilizations struggle to survive as it is, and now their water precious supply is in danger due to our selfish consumption of fossil fuels. Nowhere is this more apparently than the Himalayas.

WATER FROM THE HIMALAYAS

The Himalayas are a mountain range in Asia separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. Together, the Himalayan mountain system is the planet's highest and home to the world's highest peaks including Mount Everest and K2. The Himalayan system, which includes outlying subranges, stretches across six countries: Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Some of the world's major rivers, the Indus, the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Yangtze, rise in the Himalayas, and their combined drainage basin is home to some 1.3 billion people, including, most significantly, the people of Bangladesh. Already the effects of global warming are evident as water supply from melted glaciers and snow capped peaks are dissipating. Not only does this effect the supply of drinking water, it also effects the agriculture. Once green farmland will be nothing more than dust bowls if we continue to abuse our planet.

India, China and Nepal could experience floods followed by droughts in coming decades. The Himalayas contain the largest store of water outside the polar ice caps, and feed seven great Asian rivers. The rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers will first increase the volume of water in rivers, causing widespread flooding. But in a few decades this situation will change and the water level in rivers will decline, meaning massive eco and environmental problems for people in western China, Nepal and northern India. Hundreds of millions of people throughout China and the Indian subcontinent - most of whom live far from the Himalayas - rely on water supplied from these rivers. Many live on flood plains highly vulnerable to raised water levels.

THE FACTS

Over 500 million people could be without water due to global warming, and its not even their fault. Its ours...