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.
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.
Notice how their predictions are all beyond their lifespans.
It is all about politics.
Notice how world hunger is not a problem now except for politics.
(S)
DON'T THINK BUY NOW!!
BUY NOW!!
DON"T DELAY
BUT WAIT THERE IS MORE MORE MORE
IF YOU BUY GLOBAL WARMING NOW NOW NOW!!!
YOU GET THIS DELUX SET OF GINSU KNIFES
DON'T DELAY BUY
tooooo DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(/S)
Ron Popeil has nothing on these scientist frauds.
Heard about this. IPCC can KMA!
notice:
MUST ACT NOW NOW NOW!!!!!
DON't THINK!!!! YOU MUST ACCEPT!!!
TOO DANGEROUS TO BE WRONG!!! BUY NOW BUY NOW
everything is about cult style demands for acceptance.
The cult of global warming.
Glad to hear, since I'll be under water.
'Spose this report is politically motivated? Think that there's an actual scientist on the committee that drafted it, or just a bunch of bureaucratic wonk pencil pushers?
I keep waiting to look up Henry Waxman's nose and see his brain....
Global Warming should not be used if you are pregnant, nursing, or trying to have children. Call you doctor and stop using Global Warming immediately if you experience:
Itching
Swelling
Rash
Nausea
Dizziness
Psychosis
Do not taunt global warming.
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