Global Warming To Hit World's Poor: Report

Climate Change Summary Says Asia And Africa Will See Danger, Death, And Extinction Of Species Unless Countries Adapt

(CBS/AP)  Global warming's effects now still may be more pesky than catastrophic. But a new scientific report says that when the Earth gets a few degrees hotter, inconvenience will give way to danger, death and extinction of species.

The world faces increased hunger and water shortages in the poorest countries, massive floods and avalanches in Asia, and species extinction unless nations adapt to climate change and halt its progress, according to a report approved Friday by an international conference on global warming.

The poorest parts of the world, especially Africa and Asia, will be hit hardest, says the summary from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, issued Friday after a long, contentious editing session.

Poor countries argue that they will suffer due to global warming caused by greenhouse gasses produced in the rich industrial world. At the same time, they're being told not to produce more greenhouse gasses of their own as they try to industrialize their way out of poverty, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips.

But, despite an all-night session described as very contentious, the major thrusts of the report could not be watered down. It concludes that those who are already suffering most in this world are going to suffer worst due to global warming.

"Don't be poor in a hot country, don't live in hurricane alley, watch out about being on the coasts or in the Arctic, and it's a bad idea to be on high mountains with glaciers melting," said Stanford University scientist Stephen Schneider, an author of the study.

The 23-page document, the first part released of the full 1,572-page document written and reviewed by 441 scientists, and the second of four reports, tries to explain how global warming is changing life on Earth.

The Bush administration remains opposed to mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions, CBS News White House correspondent Peter Maer reports. It prefers international cooperation to curb pollution. The president has argued that the mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions would hurt the economy.

Even though some of the scientists' direst prose was toned down or lost, the panel's report was gloomy — with a bit of hope at the end.

Africa by 2020 is looking at an additional 75 to 250 million people going thirsty because of climate change, the report said. Deadly diarrhea diseases "primarily associated with floods and droughts are expected to rise" in Asia because of global warming, the report said.

But many changes to the report, made during a meeting of government negotiators from more than 120 countries, play down some of the dangers forecast by the authors — all eminent scientists.

"Many millions more people are projected to be flooded every year due to sea-level rise by the 2080s," the report said. "The numbers affected will be the largest in the mega-deltas of Asia and Africa while small islands are especially vulnerable."

The draft version proposed by scientists had said "hundreds of millions" of people would be vulnerable to flooding, rather than "many millions."

The final report also dropped any mention of the possibility that up to 120 million people are at risk of hunger because of global warming, referring instead to "complex localized negative impacts on small holders, subsidence farmers and fishers."

The first few degrees increase in global temperature will actually increase global food supply, but then it will plummet, according to the report.

An increase of just about 2 degrees Fahrenheit could mean "up to 30 percent of the species at increasing risk of extinction," the report said. If the globe heats a few more degrees, that changes to "significant extinctions around the globe."

"The poorest of the poor in the world — and this includes poor people in prosperous societies — are going to be the worst hit," said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the climate change panel. "People who are poor are least able to adapt to climate change."

But even rich countries, such as the United States, say the report tells them what to watch for.

The report came as no surprise to many in the American West, where devastatingly costly wildfires have become the norm, reports CBS News correspondent Jerry Bowen. In just 34 years, the average time between discovery and control of wildfires has gone from seven and a half to 37 days, and the length of the fire season has increased by more than two and a half months.

The head of the U.S. delegation, White House associate science adviser Sharon Hays, said a key message she is taking from Brussels to Washington is "that these projected impacts are expected to get more pronounced at higher temperatures. ... Not all projected impacts are negative."

[erasmus6]

rf35- now there is something that you and I both agree on! Let's hope it's soon.

[rf35]

News flash! Global warming on Mars since the 1970s is comparable to global warming on Earth. See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17952631
Posted by octavianfdlr at 06:04 AM : Apr 09, 2007

Good. Move to Mars, then. And please take didntinhale and HawkSprings with you. Limbaugh sheep.

[rheola-2009]

octavianfdlr

Maybe you will be the Pundit capable of replying to my request in my post at 1.44am.

[octavianfdlr]

News flash! Global warming on Mars since the 1970s is comparable to global warming on Earth. See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17952631

[erasmus6]

rheola
Sorry, I must be tired. I realize what you are saying now about your timings on the board.

[erasmus6]

rheola
When you post your comments the only time that shows is the eastern U.S. time.
Actually if it is late afternoon there, you are probably more than 12 hours ahead of me.

[rheola-2009]

Erasmus6

Good day mate

Goodness me, you are on the ball, though I suppose my timings on the board are a bit of a giveaway.
I nowadays tend not to let on of my whereabouts after copping some abuse from a couple of the more ignorant posting at that time.
I have just returned from a late afternoon dog walking exercise.

I have a number of rellies [distant] in the Lansing area, my Great Grandfather is from Ontario.

Have a great one, that is what is left of it.

[erasmus6]

rheola
Yes, I think everybody has gone to bed. The CBS site originates from the east in the U.S. A few hours ahead of me and I think you are something like 12 hours ahead of me. It is almost my bedtime too, I think.
It took a few minutes for the cbs website to come up here too, when I came on.

[rheola-2009]

Erasmus6
It appears that you and I may be all that are at present in the world of the awake, in more ways than 1, I am also going off for a little while, have a pressing engagement.
Will be back in an hour or so.I disappeared earlier, because I could get the CBS site to come up, not sure if prob at this end or their end, however back again.

[rheola-2009]

So many of you folks have an Al Gore blockage mentality.

It appears that you are so narrow minded and inward thinking, [that last may be beyond some]
you are incapable of seeing that Al Gore is only one of thousands, many of whom are so much more competent to speak out on this matter than is Al Gore, and are in fact trying to make those who for whatever reason, are avoiding the admission of the possibility a terrible situation arising.

Let one of you Pundits explain to me with at least a little logic, why if in case your belief is wrong, should not those who believe otherwse, begin to make the necessary plans to overcome, what may if left to long, become an irreversable disaster situation.
Surely only a total fool, in view of the evidence being presented, could argue against preparations being made to at least attempt to alleviate this potentially massive problem for what is after all, our world, not just the world of a selfish and materialistic few.

[erasmus6]

HawkSprings, HawkSprings, HawkSprings! when are you going to drop this Al Gore b-u-l-l-c-r-a-p!
Yes, he owns more than one home, get over it!
He is probably doing 100 times more than you or I are doing. Of course he has more money and is able to do more, but what are you doing, probably nothing!
You know what I think is the biggest problem here? Global warming is caused from us humans. The blame is on us. There are people who can't take any kind of criticism or blame. When they are criticized, they immediately go on the defensive. Then there is the other kind of person, the ones that don't like being told what to do. Which one are you?
When someone so desparately tries to deny something that is so obvious, it tells me there is something else going on there.

[actornaught]

Ya gotta let go of your straw man methodology, not launch it into the stratosphere. your rage is totally self inflicted. for example, Gore is a pretty minor player, i haven't even seen his movie. and don't forget, you're out here bleeting away, too, having just joined the rest of us sheep!

[hawksprings]

Plus the ONE SPOT you're referring to is 2/3 of the US, quite a "spot" to be so below normal.

I don't have a problem saying the climate is getting warmer.

I just don't buy in to the Church Of Global Warming's Doom and Gloom Hysteria, led by the Holy Father Algore, whom you Global Warming Sheep worship as he sits beside his heated pool at his energy-hog mansion.

[actornaught]

your first paragraph is your usual straw man fantasy, but then you have an interesting change in position, maybe there's hope for you after all, rush...

[hawksprings]

One day in one spot IS meaningless, but you watch this summer when a heat wave hits ONE SPOT and all you'll hear about in the news is how it's because of Human-caused Global Warming and it's OUR FAULT.

So the climate's getting warmer, big deal.
It's done it before and it's doing it again.

[actornaught]

one day in one spot is utterly meaningless.

100 days in a 100 places is meaningless, etc.

anyway, you think global warming is just not happening?

nevermind...

[hawksprings]

I think it's Algore who has the hidden agenda.

Your cute little illustration of the sick child and the doctors breaks down on so many levels, it's hard to pick where to start.

But for one, these same doctors told me 35 years ago that my child was going to freeze to death.
Some of these doctors have told me I was going to die of air pollution, lack of clean water, of the bird flu, swine flu, mad cow disease, and twenty other hysterias.

Plus, this child is the only one they've ever had for a patient, in the grand scheme of things, it's so much older than the doctors are that their existence on it is the tiniest blip in time, and so they haven't seen it in other phases of it's life, and they don't all agree if it's really sick or not.

By the way, it's 30 degrees BELOW NORMAL today where I live.

[actornaught]

"miss the point"? "just fine"? we see a few that have to think that, all right.

even W has conceded that global warming is happening, as the vast majority that's paying attention recognizes. any public personality that tells you otherwise has a hidden agenda.

[hawksprings]

You miss the point. Many of us think the child is just fine.

[erasmus6]

Thank you, actornaught, I greatly appreciate you adding that for me!