Prepare to fight over vital resources like water as climate change dramatically alters life on earth, climate scientists are warning. There’s a 50-50 chance that temperatures will rise high enough to reach dangerous levels over the next century even with heavy cuts in greenhouse gas emissions of 3% a year from 2015.
Researchers at the Met Office Hadley Centre will give more details in statements at a conference being held this week in Copenhagen in preparation for a United Nations summit in December, when world leaders will try to agree how to tackle greenhouse gases in an effort to control climate change.
From Times Online:
Scientists fear that temperature rises above 2C would lead to wars over key resources, including water supplies, falls in crop yields in southern Europe and the spread of diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. Almost a third of animal and plant species could become extinct. Warm-water corals are among the species most at risk; animals that will struggle to survive include polar bears and emperor penguins.
Vicky Pope, head of climate change advice at the Hadley Centre, said that a 2C rise could be delayed but it was extremely unlikely that it could be avoided.
“In order to stabilise at a 2C rise we have to make very drastic cuts,” she said. “But however drastic the emission cuts are, there is going to be a rise in temperatures.
“We are pretty much going to head towards 2C whatever we do. There are some impacts that are already happening and we are going to be living in a very different world.”
The places that will experience the worst of this will be regions where people are already suffering from extreme weather, poverty, hunger and social unrest. These things are going to start happening in years, not decades. Does that mean we should just give up? Of course not. We’re going to see some effects of climate change no matter what at this point, but we can still prevent the worst from happening.
Link [Times Online]
Photo credit: CharityWater.org
