Climate change to disrupt food supplies, brake growth: U.N. draft

[mick silver]

Climate change to disrupt food supplies, brake growth: U.N. drafthttp://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/FZN6924R0WZ__x92.x6.GA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9Zml0O2g9Mjc-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/logo/reuters/d0c3eb8ca18907492a4b337b5cec5193.jpeg (http://www.reuters.com/)By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent | Reuters – 12 hrs ago



Email (http://news.yahoo.com/_xhr/mtf/panel/)
Share (http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.yahoo.com%2Fclimate-change-disrupt-food-supplies-brake-growth-u-111156165.html&t=Climate%20change%20to%20disrupt%20food%20supplie s%2C%20brake%20growth%3A%20U.N.%20draft%20-%20Yahoo%20News)
77


3


Print









http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/JaXmpKTl_l6J5naQOqycuw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MzM0O2NyPTE7Y3c9NDUwO2R4PTA7ZH k9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0zMzQ7cT04NTt3PTQ1MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2014-03-23T111156Z_1_CBREA2M0V4200_RTROPTP_2_SWITZERLAND.J PG
View Photo (http://news.yahoo.com/lightbox/pachauri-chair-ipcc-briefs-media-task-force-national-photo-111156651.html)Reuters/Reuters - Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), briefs the media on the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories at the United Nations European headquarters …more




By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
OSLO (Reuters) - Global warming will disrupt food supplies, slow world economic growth and may already be causing irreversible damage to nature, according to a U.N. report due this week that will put pressure on governments to act.
A 29-page draft by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will also outline many ways to adapt to rising temperatures, more heatwaves, floods and rising seas.
"The scientific reasoning for reducing emissions and adapting to climate change is becoming far more compelling," Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC, told Reuters in Beijing.
Scientists and more than 100 governments will meet in Japan from March 25-29 to edit and approve the report. It will guide policies in the run-up to a U.N. summit in Paris in 2015 meant to decide a deal to curb rising greenhouse gas emissions.
The 29-page draft projects risks such as food and water shortages and extinctions of animals and plants. Crop yields would range from unchanged to a fall of up to 2 percent a decade, compared to a world without warming, it says.
And some natural systems may face risks of "abrupt or drastic changes" that could mean irreversible shifts, such as a runaway melt of Greenland or a drying of the Amazon rainforest.
It said there were "early warning signs that both coral reef and Arctic systems are already experiencing irreversible regime shifts". Corals are at risk in warmer seas and the Arctic region is thawing fast.
Climate change will hit growth. Warming of 2.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels could mean "global aggregate economic losses between 0.2 and 2.0 percent of income", it says.
Almost 200 governments have agreed to limit warming to less than 2.0 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times, mainly by curbing emissions from burning fossil fuels.
Temperatures have already risen by about 0.8 Celsius (1.4F).
RISING RISKS
"A wide range of impacts from climate change are already happening," said Chris Field of Stanford University and a co-chair of the IPCC report. "Risks are much greater with more warming than less warming."
"And it doesn't require 100 percent certainty before you have creative options for moving forwards ... there are compelling adaptation options," he told Reuters by telephone.
The report points to options such as improved planning for disasters such as hurricanes or flooding, efforts to breed drought- or flood-resistant crops, measures to save water and energy or wider use of insurance.
Field said the IPCC will have to take account of thousands of comments since the draft was leaked to a climate sceptic's website late last year.
And the findings will be under scrutiny, especially after the previous IPCC assessment in 2007 wrongly projected that Himalayan glaciers might all melt by 2035, affecting water supplies for millions of people from China to India.
This time, a sub-chapter projects Himalayan ice will range from a 2 percent gain to a 29 percent loss by 2035. "It is virtually certain that these projections are more reliable than an earlier erroneous assessment," it says.
The study is the second part of a mammoth three-part report.
The first, in September, raised the probability that human activities, rather than natural variations, are the main cause of warming since 1950 to at least 95 percent from 90 in 2007.
But many people in big emitting nations are unconvinced.
Only 40 percent of Americans and 39 percent of Chinese view climate change as a major threat, according to a Pew Research Center survey of 39 nations in 2013.
A third instalment, due in Berlin in mid-March, will show solutions to climate change such as more renewable energy.
(Reporting By Alister Doyle, with extra reporting by Stian Reklev in Beijing; Editing by Sophie Hares)

[mick silver]

Clinton wants 'mass movement' on climate changehttp://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/oXh_6AJBHy_uEbdrklkymA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9Zml0O2g9Mjg-/http://l.yimg.com/os/152/2012/04/21/image001-png_162613.png (http://www.ap.org/)By KEN THOMAS | Associated Press – 21 hrs ago



Email (http://news.yahoo.com/_xhr/mtf/panel/)
Share (http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.yahoo.com%2Fclinton-wants-mass-movement-climate-change-013921131--politics.html&t=Clinton%20wants%20%26%2339%3Bmass%20movement%26% 2339%3B%20on%20climate%20change%20-%20Yahoo%20News)
26




Print









http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/4NHsrklAUk_apA8krX_4ZQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MzEzMjtjcj0xO2N3PTQ2OTI7ZHg9MD tkeT0wO2ZpPXVsY3JvcDtoPTQyMTtxPTg1O3c9NjMw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/346d0bb88c43390b4f0f6a70670032ac.jpg
View Photo (http://news.yahoo.com/lightbox/former-secretary-state-hillary-rodham-clinton-center-greets-photo-011108414.html)Associated Press/Matt York - Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, center, greets talk show host Jimmy Kimmel as former President Bill Clinton, left, stands near during a student conference for …more



RELATED CONTENT





http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/jn8JWZ99kTEV8Aq.2GXUKg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MTgwMztjcj0xO2N3PTI4OTQ7ZHg9MD tkeT0wO2ZpPXVsY3JvcDtoPTExOTtxPTg1O3c9MTkw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/4fe7c6d48c49390b4f0f6a706700a3b0.jpgView Photo (http://news.yahoo.com/lightbox/former-president-bill-clinton-center-former-secretary-state-photo-011749947.html)Former President Bill Clinton, …

http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/9SlUtHlVbtrasnoPybBLnw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MTcyMTtjcj0xO2N3PTI0NDE7ZHg9MD tkeT0wO2ZpPXVsY3JvcDtoPTEzNDtxPTg1O3c9MTkw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/d95719578c41390b4f0f6a7067009a08.jpgView Photo (http://news.yahoo.com/lightbox/former-president-bill-clinton-left-listens-former-secretary-photo-010940671.html)Former President Bill Clinton, …





TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton says young people understand the significant threat of climate change and that she hopes there will be a mass movement that demands political change.
The potential 2016 presidential candidate says at a Clinton Global Initiative University panel that young people are much more committed to doing something to address climate change. Clinton says it isn't "just some ancillary issue" but will determine the quality of life for many people.
The former secretary of state cited global warming as a major issue that students could face in the future.
She made the comments Saturday during an interview with late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel at Arizona State University. The weekend gathering also features former President Bill Clinton and their daughter, Chelsea.

[Dogman]

Knew it was coming , as anyone that goes to the food store.

Abc, had a blurb about food going up at least 15% or so this year

Blaming the weather and probably rightly this time.

This years weather is unlike any in my time/memory.

[mick silver]

UN scientists see grim future if no climate actionBy Richard Ingham | AFP – 18 hrs ago



Email (http://news.yahoo.com/_xhr/mtf/panel/)
Share (http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.yahoo.com%2Fun-scientists-see-grim-future-no-action-035340842.html&t=UN%20scientists%20see%20grim%20future%20if%20no% 20climate%20action%20-%20Yahoo%20News)
1680


12


Print









http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/3HkHkcwFdhg85WXbKVvHbw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9NDc3O2NyPTE7Y3c9NzY4O2R4PTA7ZH k9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0zOTI7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/f4d5108bf0ef6d45627116941483a23fa2be7e7d.jpg
View Photo (http://news.yahoo.com/lightbox/un-scientists-set-deliver-darkest-report-yet-impacts-photo-035340384.html)AFP/AFP/File - UN scientists are set to deliver their darkest report yet on the impacts of climate change, pointing to a future stalked by floods, drought, conflict and economic damage if carbon emissions go …more



RELATED CONTENT


http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/bHjJSnEyYoXVHsMlyGyBsQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTEwNjtweG9mZj01MDtweW 9mZj0wO3E9ODU7dz0xOTA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/video/video.pd2upload.com/video.ynewskatiecouric.com@09ae15d0-fec5-37a1-917b-e575637745ed_FULL.jpgPlay Video
Bloomberg: Climate Change is Real
(http://news.yahoo.com/video/bloomberg-climate-change-real-053249966.html)3:23

http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/GQY8lSjHTCFHQK0M72uKWA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTEwNjtweG9mZj01MDtweW 9mZj0wO3E9ODU7dz0xOTA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/video/video.touchvision1.com/eef3623e2e0b053bda3184de700aa915Play Video
CLIMATE CHANGE WEBSITE
(http://news.yahoo.com/video/climate-change-website-100913396.html)0:40





Paris (AFP) - UN scientists are set to deliver their darkest report yet on the impacts of climate change, pointing to a future stalked by floods, drought, conflict and economic damage if carbon emissions go untamed.
A draft of their report, seen by AFP, is part of a massive overview by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), likely to shape policies and climate talks for years to come.
Scientists and government representatives will meet in Yokohama, Japan, from Tuesday to hammer out a 29-page summary. It will be unveiled with the full report on March 31.
"We have a lot clearer picture of impacts and their consequences... including the implications for security," said Chris Field of the United States' Carnegie Institution, who headed the probe.
The work comes six months after the first volume in the long-awaited Fifth Assessment Report declared scientists were more certain than ever that humans caused global warming.
It predicted global temperatures would rise 0.3-4.8 degrees Celsius (0.5-8.6 degrees Fahrenheit) this century, adding to roughly 0.7 C since the Industrial Revolution. Seas will creep up by 26-82 centimetres (10.4-32.8 inches) by 2100.
The draft warns costs will spiral with each additional degree, although it is hard to forecast by how much.
Warming of 2.5 C over pre-industrial times -- 0.5 C more than the UN's target -- may cost 0.2-2.0 percent of global annual income, a figure that could amount to hundreds of billions of dollars each year.
"The assessments that we can do at the moment probably still underestimate the actual impacts of future climate change," said Jacob Schewe of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany, who was not involved in the IPCC drafting.
Many scientists concurred, he said, that recent heatwaves and floods were evidence of climate change already on the march -- and a harbinger of a future in which once-freakish weather events become much less rare.
Among the perils listed in the draft are these:
-- FLOODING: Rising greenhouse-gas emissions will "significantly" boost the risk of floods, with Europe and Asia particularly exposed. In the highest warming scenarios of untamed greenhouse gas emissions, three times as many people will be exposed to severe river flooding as with lower warming.
- DROUGHT: For every 1 C (1.8 F) rise in temperature, another seven percent of the world's population will see renewable water resources decline by a fifth.
- RISING SEAS: If no measures are taken, "hundreds of millions" of coastal dwellers will be displaced by 2100. Small-island states and East, Southeast and South Asia will be the biggest land-losers.
- HUNGER: Average yields of wheat, rice and corn may fall by two percent per decade, while demand for crops is likely to rise by up to 14 percent by 2050 as Earth's population grows. The crunch will hit poor, tropical countries worst.
- SPECIES LOSS: A "large fraction" of land and freshwater species may risk extinction, their habitat destroyed by climate change.
- Security threat -
Poverty, migration and hunger are invisible drivers of turbulence and war, as they sharpen competition for dwindling resources, the report warns.
"Climate change over the 21st century will lead to new challenges to states and will increasingly shape national security policies," its draft summary says.
"Small-island states and other states highly vulnerable to sea-level rise face major challenges to their territorial integrity.
"Some transboundary impacts of climate change, such as changes in sea ice, shared water resources and migration of fish stocks, have the potential to increase rivalry among states. The presence of robust institutions can manage many of these rivalries to reduce conflict risk."
By reducing carbon emissions "over the next few decades", the world can stave off many of the worst climate consequences by century's end, says the report.
The IPCC will issue a third volume, on strategies for tackling carbon emissions, in Berlin on April 13.
The panel has issued four previous "assessment reports" in its quarter-century history.
Each has sounded a louder drumbeat of warning about the gigatonnes of carbon dioxide spewed by traffic, power stations and other fossil-fuel burners and methane from deforestation and farming.
The Yokohama volume goes further than its predecessors in forecasting regional impacts in greater detail and emphasising the risk of conflict and rising seas.
The IPCC's last big report in 2007 helped unleash political momentum leading to the 2009 UN climate summit in Copenhagen. But its reputation was dented by several mistakes, seized upon by climate skeptics as proof of bias.

[ShortJohnSilver]

They are getting ever more shrill, as fewer people buy into their BS.

[Dogman]

They are getting ever more shrill, as fewer people buy into their BS.Or not?

Whointhehellreallyknowsforsure?

What I do know as a fact, I have lived here for dam near 50 years and this weather is unlike anything in my time. The weather has gone gonzo big time over the last decade or so. I say it that way because that is how I count time anymore. In ten year chunks.

[old steel]

No doubt the weather is strange to say the least but i highly doubt we humans have anything to do with it.

Fuck them and their "humans are responsible for climate change."

We could kill off every human being on the planet and the weather would still be weird.

[Dogman]

No doubt the weather is strange to say the least but i highly doubt we humans have anything to do with it.

Fuck them and their "humans are responsible for climate change."

We could kill off every human being on the planet and the weather would still be weird.For me the jury is still out, but for sure the dam weather is a changing for the good (for some) and the bad for others.

What sucks is we can not do anything about it, or take the plunge into the unknown and cut emissions to see it it helps..

But Historically as the high po pahas speak, which I may agree with, we are in a cycle that this mud ball we call home has gone through more than once. But at the time we as a civilization was not part of it. Would love to live long enough to see the end result, but I do not think 100's or 1000's if years is possible..


Peace!

Edit; one thing is for sure , things are a chainging..

Sounds like a intro for a song....

[Neuro]

Starvation is on their depopulation agenda certainly, but we are more likely to starve to death from the carbon taxation, than any emissions of carbondioxide that the taxation prevents. Carbondioxide is actually a fertilizer for plants...

[mick silver]

UN: 2013 extreme events due to warming Earthhttp://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/oXh_6AJBHy_uEbdrklkymA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9Zml0O2g9Mjg-/http://l.yimg.com/os/152/2012/04/21/image001-png_162613.png (http://www.ap.org/)By JOHN HEILPRIN | Associated Press – 2 hrs 14 mins ago



Email (http://news.yahoo.com/_xhr/mtf/panel/)
Share (http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.yahoo.com%2Fun-2013-extreme-events-due-warming-earth-122616476.html&t=UN%3A%202013%20extreme%20events%20due%20to%20war ming%20Earth%20-%20Yahoo%20News)
69


1


Print













RELATED CONTENT


http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/0pR4g5ujxPPXpNqyy1cWJA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MTg3ODtjcj0xO2N3PTMyNDc7ZHg9MD tkeT0wO2ZpPXVsY3JvcDtoPTExMDtxPTg1O3c9MTkw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/9ba5a490b0fc540b4f0f6a7067006ac9.jpgView Photo (http://news.yahoo.com/lightbox/file-march-19-2013-file-photo-trickle-water-photo-041959259.html)FILE - In this March 19, 2013, …

http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/zMiONH51wfKlcEXEfWv.Zw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTEwNjtweG9mZj01MDtweW 9mZj0wO3E9ODU7dz0xOTA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/video/video.cnbc2.com/3f19d74b73cbf6e367fa27701fa4ad6ePlay Video
Climate change & city planning in 25 years
(http://news.yahoo.com/video/climate-change-city-planning-25-144800140.html)2:44




GENEVA (AP) — The head of the U.N. weather agency said Monday that recent extreme weather patterns are "consistent" with human-induced climate change, citing key events that wreaked havoc in Asia, Europe, the U.S. and Pacific region last year.
Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, said his agency's annual assessment of the global climate shows how dramatically people and lands everywhere felt the impacts of extreme weather such as droughts, heat waves, floods and tropical cyclones.
"Many of the extreme events of 2013 were consistent with what we would expect as a result of human-induced climate change," he said.
The U.N. agency called 2013 the sixth-warmest year on record. Thirteen of the 14 warmest years have occurred in the 21st century.
A rise in sea levels is leading to increasing damage from storm surges and coastal flooding, as demonstrated by Typhoon Haiyan, Jarraud said. The typhoon in November killed at least 6,100 people and caused $13 billion in damage to the Philippines and Vietnam.
Australia, meanwhile, had its hottest year on record and parts of central Asia and central Africa also notched record highs.
Jarraud drew special attention to studies and climate modeling examining Australia's recent heat waves, saying the high temperatures there would have been virtually impossible without the emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the burning of coal, oil and gas.
He cited other costly weather disasters such as $22 billion damage from central European flooding in June, $10 billion in damage from Typhoon Fitow in China and Japan, and a $10 billion drought in much of China.
Only a few places were cooler than normal. Among them was the central U.S.
Jarraud also cited frigid polar air in parts of Europe and the southeast U.S., and the widest tornado ever observed over rural areas of central Oklahoma, as being among extreme weather events.
There were 41 billion-dollar weather disasters in the world last year, the second highest number behind only 2010, according to insurance firm Aon Benfield, which tracks global disasters.
Jarraud spoke as top climate scientists and representatives from about 100 governments with the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change met in Japan to complete their latest report on global warming's impact.