UN PANEL: 'VERY UNLIKELY' WE CAN AVOID CATASTROPHIC CLIMATE CHANGE

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CAHAL MILMO, INDEPENDENT, UK - A rise of two degrees centigrade in
global temperatures – the point considered to be the threshold for
catastrophic climate change which will expose millions to drought,
hunger and flooding – is now "very unlikely" to be avoided, the
world's leading climate scientists said yesterday.

The latest study from the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change put the inevitability of drastic global warming in the
starkest terms yet, stating that major impacts on parts of the world –
in particular Africa, Asian river deltas, low-lying islands and the
Arctic – are unavoidable and the focus must be on adapting life to
survive the most devastating changes.

For more than a decade, EU countries led by Britain have set a rise of
two degrees centigrade or less in global temperatures above
pre-industrial levels as the benchmark after which the effects of
climate become devastating, with crop failures, water shortages,
sea-level rises, species extinctions and increased disease.

Two years ago, an authoritative study predicted there could be as little
as 10 years before this "tipping point" for global warming was reached,
adding a rise of 0.8 degrees had already been reached with further rises
already locked in because of the time lag in the way carbon dioxide –
the principal greenhouse gas – is absorbed into the atmosphere.

The IPCC said yesterday that the effects of this rise are being felt
sooner than anticipated with the poorest countries and the poorest
people set to suffer the worst of shifts in rainfall patterns,
temperature rises and the viability of agriculture across much of the
developing world.

http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2976669.ece

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