The situation, reported in today's Guardian, is more dire than previously reported. Death, famine, drought: cost of 3C global rise in temperature.
UK chief scientist's stark warning for urgent action.
Change would destroy half of nature reserves.
Global temperatures will rise by an average of 3C due to climate change and cause catastrophic damage around the world unless governments take urgent action, according to the UK government's chief scientist.
In a stark warning issued yesterday Sir David King said that a rise of this magnitude would cause famine and drought and threaten millions of lives.
It would also cause a worldwide drop in cereal crops of between 20 and 400m tonnes, put 400 million more people at risk of hunger, and put up to 3 billion people at risk of flooding and without access to fresh water supplies.
The new assessment comes from a report published by the UK's Hadley Centre, a world leader in climate change modelling, called Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change. A Quicktime video of the Hadley Centre's animated model of climate change.
Quicktime video simulating Manhattan's potential coastline after the warming. Notice in this pre-2001 postcard of Manhattan the location of the WTC towers, and then notice where sea level is in the simulation:
Quicktime video - simulation of Miami.
Quicktime video - in the simulation of Washington, D.C., the Jefferson Memorial (and more) goes below sea level.
Check this site for a simulation of global warming's potential effect on your city.
Filed under: UK chief scientist Sir David King, Hadley Centre, global warming
No comments:
Post a Comment