Posted on 01/30/2007 3:07:20 PM PST by NormsRevenge
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Rising temperatures will leave millions more people hungry by 2080 and cause critical water shortages in China and Australia, as well as parts of Europe and the United States, according to a new global climate report.
By the end of the century, climate change will bring water scarcity to between 1.1 and 3.2 billion people as temperatures rise by 2 to 3 Celsius (3.6 to 4.8 Fahrenheit), a leaked draft of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report said.
The report, due for release in April but detailed in The Age newspaper, said an additional 200 million to 600 million people across the world would face food shortages in another 70 years, while coastal flooding would hit another 7 million homes.
"The message is that every region of the earth will have exposure," Dr Graeme Pearman, who helped draft the report, told Reuters on Tuesday.
"If you look at China, like Australia they will lose significant rainfall in their agricultural areas," said Pearman, the former climate director of Australia's top science body, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.
Africa and poor countries such as Bangladesh would be most affected because they were least able to cope with greater coastal damage and drought, said Pearman.
The IPCC was set up in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the U.N. Environment Program to guide policy makers globally on the impact of climate change.
The panel is to release a report on Friday in Paris forecasting global temperatures rising by 2 to 4.5 Celsius (3.6 to 8.1 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by 2100, with a "best estimate" of a 3C (5.4 F) rise.
That report will summarize the scientific basis of climate change, while the April draft details the consequences of global warming and options for adapting to them.
The draft contains an entire chapter on Australia -- which is in the grip of its worst recorded drought -- warning the country's Great Barrier Reef would become "functionally extinct" because of coral bleaching.
As well, snow would disappear from Australia's southeast alps, while water inflows to the Murray-Darling river basin, the country's main agricultural region, would fall by 10 and 25 percent by 2050.
In Europe, glaciers would disappear from the central Alps, while some Pacific island nations would be hit hard by rising sea levels and more frequent tropical storms.
"It's really a story of trying to assess in your own region what your exposure will be, and making sure you have ways to deal with it," said Pearman.
On the positive side, Pearman said there was an enormous amount the international community could do to avert climate change if swift action was taken.
"The projections in the report that comes out this week are based on the assumption that we are slow to respond and that things continue more-or-less as they have in the past."
Some scientists say Australia -- the world's driest inhabited continent -- is suffering from "accelerated climate change" compared to other nations.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., holds up a report during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington in this 2006 file photo. Waxman said Tuesday that there is evidence that senior Bush administration officials sought 'to mislead the public' on global warming. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke, FILE)
We're doomed......
Not to worry.
The sun will explode in 2012.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., left, and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. greet on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2007, prior to testifying before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee a hearing on global warming. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
Yes, but Henry Waxman's head may explode before that..........
when they can tell us the weather two weeks from today and have it be right, then I will worry about what may happen in 73 years.
Women and minorities hardest hit....
I'm going to grow pineapples in Alaska!
Women and minorities hardest hit.
How many millions are hungry and waterless right now? That's like predicting 'the sun rose this morning'.
Apaprently, no one needs to go waterless anymore - http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21123007-12272,00.html
I SWEAR I did not see your post when I posted mine.
Let's just say the meteorology has a few things yet to learn.
will it snow next weekend or the weekend after that? I want to plan a vacation skiing...
these guys are sure smart
Enclose the entire planet and air condition it.
good point......
If current trends continue their will be a 1.2 billion cars in Jakarta by the year 2095.
If current trends continue their will be a 1.2 billion cars in Jakarta by the year 2095.
With a high of 19 and a low of 2, I am not feeling this whole global warming thing.....gotta go and put another log on the fire.
These guys can't accurately tell us what the weather is going to tomorrow; I'm going to believe them what might happen in 50 years?
RJL’s reports shows that desalinization will easily and cheaply provide all the fresh water needed by the year 2080.
Further, plants and crops will love the warmer weather and mankind will live in a tropical Garden of Eden.
I thought the asteroid was gonna hit in 2012.
And didn't Ted Danson tell us in the 1980's that the Oceans would disappear by the year 2000? I guess it's just easier to worry about something that MIGHT happen way down the road, than have to face the huge problem that's facing us now. If Muslims take over the world, the earth blowing up might be a welcomed occurance.
For example, during the last ice age, conditions were sometimes actually drier than now.
And, during the Cretaceous era, there were no ice caps at all, and the temperature was way warmer. Most of the world's aluminum deposits date from this era, as they needed copious amounts of rainfall to leach the soil and concentrate the aluminum.
Something like that.
2080!!!!??????
I'm going to start stocking up on water and canned food now and avoid the rush!!!
/sarc
Now they are psychics, too.
Rising temperatures will leave millions more people hungry by 2080
----
I still have my global freeze wardrobe from the 70s. Think I should cut the arms off and do short sleeves? I hate to waste so many designer outfits.
When I'm 115 years old, I'm sure to forget.
looking at your map, it looks like there will be plenty of water, especially for Europe and the Middle-East
"The sun will explode in 2012."
Yeah, those Mayans were on to something!
The good news is I won't have to pay anything to take my boat through the Panama Canal because it doesn't exist. Also, it looks like 'ol Fidel is out of business too!
Just back from biking and my water froze. I'm not feeling the warmth either.
I know, how about a new government beuracracy with "global" authority? All products, goods and services have to be approved by this agency so that we as consumers can be confident that the products we consume are friendly to the environment. This can be Al Gore's new meal ticket.
Yes, and all those Atlantic species will mix with the Pacific species, and who knows what else will happen! The bottom line is that it will still be Bush's fault. ;-)
I guess, unlike all the Chicken Littles, I recognize the world is not and never has been static, we are here such a short time in the scheme of things that any little change has become reason for so many to have concern. In fact it will change and it's really arrogant to think we have that much control over the world climate.
Now~! trash, is another story and is something they should make a big deal out of, people are trashing out beautiful deserts, many from across the border... as well as this side... All the trash washes into our lakes, streams and oceans and it is actually something we can do something about.
Time to invest in Culligan.
Sure it will, I'll let out a few dozen butterflies. Oh wait thats for hurricanes.
I saw a report that said the heat flux in Antartica was .065 watts/M2. Assume that is about average for the earth.
Earth has a surface area of 196,940,400 square miles
Earth has a surface area of 510,073,294,444,816 square meters.
Earth emits 33,154,764,138,913.04 watts
or 33,154,764 MegaWatts. That takes nuclear power.
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