Posted on 03/11/2007 8:33:12 AM PDT by CheyennePress
WASHINGTON (March 10) - The harmful effects of global warming on daily life are already showing up, and within a couple of decades hundreds of millions of people won't have enough water, top scientists will say next month at a meeting in Belgium.
At the same time, tens of millions of others will be flooded out of their homes each year as the Earth reels from rising temperatures and sea levels, according to portions of a draft of an international scientific report obtained by The Associated Press.
Tropical diseases like malaria will spread. By 2050, polar bears will mostly be found in zoos, their habitats gone. Pests like fire ants will thrive.
For a time, food will be plentiful because of the longer growing season in northern regions. But by 2080, hundreds of millions of people could face starvation, according to the report, which is still being revised.
The draft document by the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change focuses on global warming's effects and is the second in a series of four being issued this year. Written and reviewed by more than 1,000 scientists from dozens of countries, it still must be edited by government officials.
But some scientists said the overall message is not likely to change when it's issued in early April in Brussels, the same city where European Union leaders agreed this past week to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Their plan will be presented to President Bush and other world leaders at a summit in June.
The report offers some hope if nations slow and then reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, but it notes that what's happening now isn't encouraging.
"Changes in climate are now affecting physical and biological systems on every continent," the report says, in marked contrast to a 2001 report by the same international group that said the effects of global warming were coming. But that report only mentioned scattered regional effects.
"Things are happening and happening faster than we expected," said Patricia Romero Lankao of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., one of the many co-authors of the new report.
The draft document says scientists are highly confident that many current problems _ change in species' habits and habitats, more acidified oceans, loss of wetlands, bleaching of coral reefs, and increases in allergy-inducing pollen _ can be blamed on global warming.
For example, the report says North America "has already experienced substantial ecosystem, social and cultural disruption from recent climate extremes," such as hurricanes and wildfires.
But the present is nothing compared to the future.
Global warming soon will "affect everyone's life ... it's the poor sectors that will be most affected," Romero Lankao said.
And co-author Terry Root of Stanford University said: "We truly are standing at the edge of mass extinction" of species.
The report included these likely results of global warming:
Hundreds of millions of Africans and tens of millions of Latin Americans who now have water will be short of it in less than 20 years. By 2050, more than 1 billion people in Asia could face water shortages. By 2080, water shortages could threaten 1.1 billion to 3.2 billion people, depending on the level of greenhouse gases that cars and industry spew into the air.
Death rates for the world's poor from global warming-related illnesses, such as malnutrition and diarrhea, will rise by 2030. Malaria and dengue fever, as well as illnesses from eating contaminated shellfish, are likely to grow.
Europe's small glaciers will disappear with many of the continent's large glaciers shrinking dramatically by 2050. And half of Europe's plant species could be vulnerable, endangered or extinct by 2100.
By 2080, between 200 million and 600 million people could be hungry because of global warming's effects.
About 100 million people each year could be flooded by 2080 by rising seas.
Smog in U.S. cities will worsen and "ozone-related deaths from climate (will) increase by approximately 4.5 percent for the mid-2050s, compared with 1990s levels," turning a small health risk into a substantial one.
Polar bears in the wild and other animals will be pushed to extinction.
At first, more food will be grown. For example, soybean and rice yields in Latin America will increase starting in a couple of years. Areas outside the tropics, especially the northern latitudes, will see longer growing seasons and healthier forests.
Looking at different impacts on ecosystems, industry and regions, the report sees the most positive benefits in forestry and some improved agriculture and transportation in polar regions. The biggest damage is likely to come in ocean and coastal ecosystems, water resources and coastal settlements.
The hardest-hit continents are likely to be Africa and Asia, with major harm also coming to small islands and some aspects of ecosystems near the poles. North America, Europe and Australia are predicted to suffer the fewest of the harmful effects.
"In most parts of the world and most segments of populations, lifestyles are likely to change as a result of climate change," the draft report said. "Net valuations of benefits vs. costs will vary, but they are more likely to be negative if climate change is substantial and rapid, rather than if it is moderate and gradual."
This report - considered by some scientists the "emotional heart" of climate change research - focuses on how global warming alters the planet and life here, as opposed to the more science-focused report by the same group last month.
"This is the story. This is the whole play. This is how it's going to affect people. The science is one thing. This is how it affects me, you and the person next door," said University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver.
Many - not all - of those effects can be prevented, the report says, if within a generation the world slows down its emissions of carbon dioxide and if the level of greenhouse gases sticking around in the atmosphere stabilizes. If that's the case, the report says "most major impacts on human welfare would be avoided; but some major impacts on ecosystems are likely to occur."
The United Nations-organized network of 2,000 scientists was established in 1988 to give regular assessments of the Earth's environment. The document issued last month in Paris concluded that scientists are 90 percent certain that people are the cause of global warming and that warming will continue for centuries.
Is there anyway of holding these frauds guilty of some sort of malpractice when none of this happens? Of course not, I know... *sigh*
But if you're Joe Consumer that views the news as fact, how could you not get hysterical over something like this?
Doesn't matter anyway. The asteroids are gonna get us first... or maybe aliens.
Forecast for future, women, children and minorities hurt most, Bush's fault.
I just got my heating bill here in New York City.I found out it has been colder than last year.In fact we had the coldest February in 28 years.
"The asteroids are gonna get us first... or maybe aliens."
Yes. Hot looking alien babes from the planet Xubo.
I've understood that the harvest will start when mankind reaches 10 billion.
Water is the next socialist cause celeb.... watch out for the socialist control of water.......
That's because of the global warming.
They have a response for that. You see, these cultists claim that colder winters prove global warming. Also, global warming causes more hurricanes, except when we don't get any, which is a result of global warming. Get the picture?
Yeah, pretty soon selling bottled water will be illegal. Then they'll make it illegal for stores to use plastic bags. Everyone will be forced to bring their own bags every time they shop for food, clothes, CD's, etc.
The people in flooded areas can sell water to the people in drought areas. That will take care of the water issue. Next?
and
tens of millions of others will be flooded
Juxtapose these events and it becomes difficult to reconcile. The melting glaciers will provide the needed fresh water and those flooded will move.
ROTFL! Good One!
The earth will end, just like it did during the medieval warming period.
Thanks now I know why we had less huricanes last year even though the 'experts' predicted we would have MORE.
On a lighter note THEY say for every one degree rise in temperature we will grow a new god!
How does one become a "top" scientist?
ask and ye shall receive..plastic bags are outlawed or soon will be
http://www.eagleworldnews.com/2006/12/11/paris-to-outlaw-non-biodegradable-plastic-bags/
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/06/1086460178276.html?from=storyrhs
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/26379/story.htm
You're out of line there, buddy.
Only the global warming freaks are allowed to use snapshots of recent events, and anecdotal evidence, to convince us of dire doom and gloom.
Bla, bla, bla...I liked these guys better when they wore sandwich boards saying "Repent! The End is Near!" ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_qeWnS7Eig
AND FOR THE TRUTH ON GLOBALONEY WARMING, see this (75 mins but you can get the meat in the first 15)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9005566792811497638&q=The+Great+Global+Warming+Swindle&hl=en
And youll know why I did the 2 minute thingy.
Like I've always said, there is a simple solution to all environmental and scarcity problems. Just reduce the population of the Earth by 85%.
That is, if we all don't die from bird flu first.
I am beginning to think the exact sciences are no longer EXACT.
If that doesn't tell you how much scientific validity this has, nothing will.
We have absolutely no control over 99.72% of the greenhouse gas effect, yet the global warming religious zealouts say that they know how to control global climate by regulating the 0.28% of the effect that we contribute.
The Mann "Hockey Stick" data, upon which all global warming religious dogma is based, has been PROVEN false by a REAL statistician.
Wegman found that Mann made a basic error that "may be easily overlooked by someone not trained in statistical methodology. We note that there is no evidence that Dr. Mann or any of the other authors in paleoclimate studies have had significant interactions with mainstream statisticians." Instead, this small group of climate scientists were working on their own, largely in isolation, and without the academic scrutiny needed to ferret out false assumptions.
Climate change dogma is political science.
The commie plan:
After the US has been reduced to the level of all the other 2nd rate countries via Kyoto, and their dire predictions do not come to pass, the red/greenies can pat themselves on the back for having "saved the Planet".
>>>>"Doesn't matter anyway. The asteroids are gonna get us first... or maybe aliens"<<<<<
Simultaneous drought, flood, heat, cold and glaciers will reclaim New York after the super volcanoes erupt.
And we all know who's fault it is!
TT
>>>>>>"How does one become a "top" scientist?"<<<<<<
Algore is an alpha scientist
TT
Facts? We doan' need no steenkin' facts. Just find a little set of data points that leans in the direction you want, then pretend it's a stable global trend that will continue unchanged for decades, and voila'-- global catastrophe for everybody--except the "scientsts," for whom it will be a windfall of grant money.
Close, but according to this article it will be the poor, Africans, and Asians hit hardest.
Note the countries that will suffer the least according to this article - North America, Europe and Australia.
Looks like we know who'll be footing the bill for this scheme.
An IQ over 50?
No joke, this is very likely to come to pass, if we don't come to our senses first.
What's the harvest?
SELL water?! It's immoral to make a profit from human thirst! You will GIVE that water away to whomever liberals decide is needy!
There are two more press releases scheduled before summer; by the time August gets here the Antarctic will be boiling over in the middle of their winter.
Root, T.L., 1988. Atlas of Wintering North American Birds: An Analysis of Christmas Bird Count Data. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois.
She's a friggin' bird watcher out to save the world. Bad enough we had to live through butterfly expert Paul Ehrlich. Sheesh.
...broken up into 10 minute chunks...
The Great Global Warming Swindle 1/8
You'll notice the other segments in the left side window. I think it's important to watch the whole thing, the last 15 minutes or so had some really important stuff about developing countries.
I believe IKEA already does this.
It would also serve as a model of how to get ever more supranational control over people's lives and their money.
Have you noticed these kooks are getting screechier and more hysterical by the second in the last couple of months or less?
Have you noticed these kooks are getting screechier and more hysterical by the second in the last couple of months or less?
= = =
True enough.
And this is just the beginning of the intro to the start of the commencement of a season of several years of being infinitely WORSE on that score.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.