Story by the Associated Press; curated by Dave Urbanski
WASHINGTON (AP) — A leaked draft of an international scientific report forecasts that man-made global warming likely will worsen already existing human tragedies of war, starvation, poverty, flooding, extreme weather and disease.
Baked earth at the Fervenza reservoir in Dumbria where the water is far below usual levels, 13 November 2007. The UN's Nobel-winning panel on climate change completed in Valencia, 16 November 2007 a draft report that said the consequences of global warming could be far-reaching and irreversible. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)
The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will issue a report next March on how global warming is already affecting the way people live and what will happen in the future, including a worldwide drop in income. A leaked copy of a draft of the report's summary appeared online Friday. Governments will spend the next few months making comments about the draft.
The report details specific effects of warming and how countries and people can adapt to some of them. The American scientist who heads the report, Chris Field, says experts paint a dramatic contrast of possible futures.
President Barack Obama signed an executive order Friday to “prepare the nation” for the dire consequences of global warming by establishing a new task force aimed in part at steering local communities toward making “smarter” investments to prepare for climate change-caused catastrophes.
“The impacts of climate change—including an increase in prolonged periods of excessively high temperatures, more heavy downpours, an increase in wildfires, more severe droughts, permafrost thawing, ocean acidification, and sea-level rise—are already affecting communities, natural resources, ecosystems, economies, and public health across the Nation,” the executive order states.
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