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Politics : The Exxon Free Environmental Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ron who wrote (226)	4/6/2007 6:44:37 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 49093

That's why ASU is ASU, and Cal is #1 in the world :>) UN panel poised for bleak report on climate by Anne Chaon Thu Apr 5, 8:19 AM ET BRUSSELS (AFP) - Top scientists on Thursday were putting the finishing touches to a landmark report set to declare that climate change is already discernible and could wreak devastation to human settlement and wildlife this century. Damage to Earth's weather systems from greenhouse-house gases will change rainfall patterns, punch up the power of storms, boost the risk of drought, flooding and water stress and accelerate the existing meltdown of glaciers and erosion of ice sheets, the report will say. The prediction by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is due to be released on Friday, part of its first review in six years of the evidence for man-made climate change. With a few exceptions, the news is relentlessly bad for virtually all of Earth's population, but poor tropical countries -- the least to blame for the fossil-fuel pollution that drives global warming -- will be hit worst. Worsening water shortages in thirsty countries, malnutrition caused by dessicated fields, property damage from extreme weather events and the spread of disease by mosquitoes and other vectors will amount to a punishing bill that is beyond the ability of vulnerable countries, especially in Africa, to pay. The effects of climate change mean that the eight Millennium Development Goals, enshrined by the United Nations in 2000 as a spur to haul poor countries out of want, are at risk, the panel will say. Its members say with "high confidence" -- 80 percent -- that storms, droughts and floods will intensify, adding to the toll in human misery. Biodiversity and natural habitat are in for a hammering. Even a modest increase in temperatures will bleach many coral reefs, reduce part of eastern Amazonia to a parched savannah, thaw swathes of the northern hemisphere's permafrost, change seasons for plant pollination and animal reproduction. The planet could be placed on the fast track to a mass die-out. "Roughly 20-30 percent... of species assessed so far are likely to be at increasingly high risk of extinction if global mean temperatures exceed 2-3 C (3.6-5.4 F) above pre-industrial levels," the scientists are expected to say. The warnings are spelled out in a "summary for policymakers" that accompanies a 79-page technical document -- itself a precis of a 1,400-page catalogue of the present and likely future impacts of climate change. "By 2080, it is likely that 1.1 to 3.2 billion people will be experiencing water scarcity," says a draft of the summary, explaining that the figure depends on world population growth, energy use and the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. By the same date, as many as 600 million may experience hunger and each year between two and seven million more people will be hit by coastal flooding. In the first volume of its report, issued in February, the IPCC said Earth's temperature had already risen by 0.74 C (1.33 F) in the past century. By 2100, it could rise by 1.1 C (1.98 F) and 6.4 C (11.52 F) compared to 1980-99 levels, with a likely range of 1.8 C to 4.0 C (3.2-7.2 F). The report will say that action taken swiftly to reduce present emissions can reduce or delay many impacts, and the magnitude of some effects can be eased if countries set in place adaptation measures, such as buffers to protect coastal populations and reservoirs to collect water. These measures are limited by cost, but even the wealthiest countries will struggle. It gave the examples of Europe's heatwave in 2003, in which 70,000 people died, and of Hurricane Katrina, which inflicted economic damage of more than 100 billion dollars. "We need to take adaptation very seriously, because we already need to be doing it," said Lara Hansen, chief scientist at green group WWF's climate programme. "People are becoming more and more aware of things like fresh water and how it costs when you don't have it... (but) adaptation is the place where we have made the least progress." news.yahoo.com