• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Statement of Philip E. Clapp, President of the National Environmental Trust on Today's Global Warming Report Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, Released By the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Brussels, Belgium

Posted on: Friday, 6 April 2007, 12:00 CDT

WASHINGTON, April 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- This latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasizes that global warming is already having observable impacts world wide and documents specific regional impacts that can be expected if temperatures continue to rise.

"This report no longer describes global warming as a looming environmental crisis, but as a rapidly advancing human crisis. It forecasts millions of deaths worldwide and enormous increases in poverty and hunger beyond anything the world has ever seen.

"Scientific language like 'declining crop yields in the poorest nations' really means that millions of people face starvation as global warming makes it impossible to raise enough food to survive. Over the past 20 years, we have already seen what drought and famine do: the conflicts in Ethiopia and Somalia were touched off in large part by migrations of drought-stricken people in search of food.

"The governments of some of the world's biggest polluters and oil producers, China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, tried to water down some aspects of the report. This has never been a political process, and governments can't be allowed to impose their self-interested political agendas on scientists.

"There will be an enormous focus on what can be done to adapt and protect as many people as possible. We have to invest in protecting people here in the United States and help the world's poorest. But investments in adapting will all be wasted unless the United States takes a lead in cutting its own emissions and works with other big industrial countries to cut theirs."

Background

Today's IPCC report indicates that as temperatures rise, the impacts of global warming get more severe. The IPCC report findings show that just 2 degrees of warming over 1988-1999 levels will lead to increased mortality from heat waves, floods and droughts and puts 30% of the world's species at risk for extinction.

Overall, the IPPC report includes more than 2,500 scientists appointed by more than 130 countries. This second working group reflects the collaboration of 127 lead authors and 837 reviewers who incorporated thousands of comments from expert reviewers. The authors and reviewers were drawn from 74 countries.

The IPCC Assessment Reports are considered the gold-standard of what the world's scientists currently know about climate change. The reports are by their nature conservative since they are a synthesis of studies that have already received rigorous peer review. In this second installment of the 4th assessment scientists point to strong evidence that more smog-related deaths, water scarcity for billions of people, and wildfires will be more likely with increased warming.

For a copy of the Summary for Policymakers go to: http://www.ipcc.ch/ and http://www.net.org/

National Environmental Trust

CONTACT: Eric Young of National Environmental Trust, +1-202-887-8833

Web site: http://www.ipcc.ch/http://www.net.org/

Source: PRNewswire-USNewswire

More News in this Category