Scary UN climate report

01 April 2014 - 02:01 By The First Post
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Image: David McNew/Getty Images/AFP

Nobody anywhere will go untouched by the effects of global warming over the next few decades, a UN panel has warned.

Members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change yesterday published what they call the "most comprehensive climate-change study to date", warning that storms, floods, droughts and heatwaves are a growing threat.

What else did the report say?

The effects of global warming are likely to be "severe, pervasive and irreversible", with rising temperatures putting health, homes, food supplies and safety at risk. Violent conflicts, food shortages and infrastructure damage are expected to become more prevalent, reports London's The Daily Telegraph, and a growing number of land animals and marine species face the risk of extinction. The authors say that the adverse effects of climate change on crop yields are already being felt.

What is the IPCC?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is based in Geneva and has 12 full-time staff. The report was compiled by more than 300 authors from 70 countries, with contributions from thousands of experts worldwide.

Why is this report so important?

It is the first of its kind to analyse rising temperatures as "a series of comprehensive global risks caused by increasingly perilous levels of carbon dioxide [in the atmosphere]", reports The Telegraph.

"We have assessed impacts as they are happening: impacts on natural and human systems on all continents and in all oceans," panel chairman Rajendra Pachauri said.

But one author has already withdrawn his support from the report. Professor Richard Tol, of the University of Sussex, last week asked that his name be removed from the report's summary because he believed it was "alarmist" and included "silly" statements about the vulnerability of people in war zones, reports the Financial Times. But Professor Chris Field, of Stanford University, in California, the co-chairman of the panel, suggested Tol was upset because his research had not been better represented in the summary.

What next?

The report is the second of three instalments of the IPCC's fifth assessment of climate change. The third instalment, due out on April 13, will unveil strategies for tackling carbon emissions.

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