Climate change will devastate every continent

Dubai: Global warming and pollution will damage every continent on Earth this century and affect billions of people, a UN panel said yesterday in the most comprehensive assessment yet of climate change.

The drafting of the report by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), predicting among other things that global warming will hit poor countries hardest and threaten nearly a third of the world's species with extinction, was fiercely disputed during a week of negotiations, ending with a marathon 24-hour session.

Publication was delayed on the final day after several countries objected to tough wording, sparking charges of political interference from one delegate.

At US insistence, drafters dumped a paragraph that said North America was "expected to experience severe local economic damage and substantial ecosystem, social and cultural disruption," delegates said.

Poor to be hit hardest

The report says Hima-layan glaciers face shrinkage of up to 80 per cent, directly endangering billions of people. The worst affected regions will be the Arctic, which will see the biggest and fastest temperature increases, and sub-Saharan Africa.

The report is the work of hundreds of scientists who reviewed scientific, environmental and socio-economic papers on the impacts of climate change.

"If no action is taken the planet will soon be dramatically different," Dr Lara Hansen, Chief Scientist of World Wildlife Fund's Global Climate Change Programme, told Gulf News from Brussels, where the report was released yesterday.

Nearly 30 per cent of all species are estimated to be "at high risk of irreversible extinction" if average temperatures rise more than 1.5-2.5C, as predicted by the end of the century.

Damage to Earth's weather systems from greenhouse gases will change rainfall patterns, punch up the power of storms and boost the risk of drought, flooding and stress on water supplies, the IPCC said.

"Poor people are the most vulnerable and will be the worst hit by the impacts of climate change. This becomes a global responsibility," IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri declared in Brussels.

- With additional inputs from agencies

Your comments

There is a lot of should and would stuff, what do we do? Drive bicycles to the workplace and live in wind tower-style houses, with solar-powered lights and cooking ranges? Any takers? Please see the Al Gore movie An Inconvenient Truth. What will happen to our kids?
Anindya
Dubai,UAE

A devastating loss of diversity is seen as a result of human activity. It is certainly more than that. A lack of diversity in our rationalising awareness has been the true cause of our egoistic actions to begin with. Lack of diversity is the cause and the result. A quick fix of actions is required but will not work without a change in awareness. Ultimately, we have to surrender our childish intentions (wanting to "save the planet," absurdly, could also be an immature intention, just like wanting to exploit it, and does not by itself lead to a true change in awareness).
Rolf-Peter
Taipei,Taiwan

There is absolutely no such thing as 'global warming'. It is a totally blown up issue. The anthrax scare, bird flu, global terrorism and now, the so-called global warming were all created and exaggerated to scare the world population against a non-existent common 'enemy' in order to further the New World Order agenda which briefly means: one world, one global government, one currency and one law applicable to the entire world population.
Hussam
Sharjah,UAE

This planet doesn't belong to the world governments; it belongs to you and me. The almighty corporate dollar won't mean a damn thing if none of us can eat or drink. We're all spoiled here and can't imagine inconvenience. If humans are all wiped out, we deserved it. Maybe that will also be "as natural as climate change."
Jackie
Allentown, Pennsylvania,USA

Use has become consume. This was propagated as part of a business interest where only motive is profit. In the profit-making process people lose sanity to the extent that they find it reasonable to sell poison to make profit.
Sridharan
Brussels,Belgium

There is one small step that perhaps could be done to reduce global warming - we could start using air coolers instead of continuously using air-conditioners or perhaps the cooler and air-conditioning manufacturing companies could come out with something new. Just imagine the heat generated by tons of air-conditioning units, which is definitely a need but at the same time maybe we could try and come out with something that will reduce global warming.
Reny
Sharjah,UAE

Human Race wake up...
Wosim
Dubai,UAE

Global warming is an international problem and any remedial action to reduce this should be implemented forcefully to save our children's future.
Muhammad
Dubai,UAE

Governments (especially mine) will have to make it mandatory for its citizens to make sacrifices to cut co-2. For example, small cars only, or small engines, no fireplace burning, no charcoal, smaller dwellings etc. Yes, they will lose votes but they must take it on the chin.
Richard
Brooklyn, New York,USA

Everybody is driving a huge guzzler truck these days as a display of class and power, without realising that every drop of fuel burning adds greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. This problem has come up because of billions of such unconcerned individuals. Are we ready to give up such vehicles? Can a president of a country, for a positive start, volunteer that he would ride a small 800cc car so that others can follow without making vehicles a prestige issue and save fuel and environment?
Neeraj
Dubai,UAE

Saying that climate change will "devastate" every continent comes across as hyperbolic fear-mongering, similar to the Y2K hysteria whipped up by the press at the time. A less hysterical headline, like, "Climate change will impact every continent and be devastating to many" would at least allow you to keep a shred of credibility.
Brian
Halifax,Canada

Turning a blind eye towards the environment for the fear of economic decline will lead us to extinction. The total cost of comfort availed by humans can never be recovered unless leaders of every nation pay attention to the warning from the UN. The future generation will suffer due to the inaction of the present generation. The number of gasoline-powered vehicles on the road is going up daily. Rich nations defy the world bodies and go on their own way. If they want to lead the world, they should lead the world on all matters including environment.
Babu
Toronto,Canada

It is not good for world leaders like George W. Bush to refuse to act on climate change. We have to take the matter into our own hands by voting for those who will take positive action and do it now before it is too late.
Derek
Brisbane,Australia

Why do people refuse to believe this? I am shocked that so few people will take this seriously. We need to try and fix our careless ways, and soon!
Buddy
Apex, North Carolina,USA

It is still unproven that we cause global warming. Changes in the climate are natural. This is all propaganda designed to scare and control. It's horrible that the media only shows one side of this argument. Truly pathetic and an injustice to everyone.
Christopher
Las Vegas,USA

I believe it is time to switch to clean sources of power production and phase out use of fossil fuels globally, even in favour of nuclear power plants. Car emissions on all new vehicles should be also controlled globally. It seems that everyone puts $ first in priority and it is time this stinking thinking changed if we care about what sort of world will be left for future generations.
Tibor
Gold Coast,Australia

Finally, something is being addressed about this issue. It doesn't help that there is so much spin and lies out there saying that global warming is fake. I just worry that we won't do enough until we're in the full grip of the devastation of this climate change.
Nathaniel
Mesa,USA