Macau people used to be a fishing population. Have you ever planned to experience this lifestyle on a yacht? As most of you are benefiting greatly from Macau's golden era, I would suggest you purchase one before 2040.

During the period of October and November last year, The Macau Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau recorded the highest average temperature since 1952. Particularly, the average temperature in November was 22.8°, a 2° increase compared to the average temperature of the same month five years ago.

In addition, according to the Macau Maritime Administration, the average tidal height from 1996 to 2005 was 1.903 meters, while it was 1.838 meters a decade before.

These figures signal a warning of global warming and possible disastrous consequences for our city.

According to a NASA-funded climate change project, specialists in meteorology forecast that the Arctic ice will all be gone in 2040 and the sea level will rise for 23 feet (about 7 meters).

On 2nd Feb, 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was established by World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), released the Fourth Assessment Report, which points out that Arctic sea-ice is going to disappear almost entirely by the latter part of the 21st Century.

This report, conducted by over 620 experts and a large number of representatives from 113 governments, is said to be the most authoritative research so far on the issue. It places a great emphasis on the rise of sea level, which may ultimately result in submergence, threatening many coastal areas.

In 1999, a Pacific island in Kiribati called Bikeman was submerged. It is the first victim of the sea level rise. Tuvalu, an island country in the central Pacific, is threatened to be the next.

This brings a terrifying question to the peninsulas like Macau, too. Will Macau be one of the victims in this circumstance? Cheong Chin Chio, a meteorologist of the Macau Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau provides the following answers:

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