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G_j

(40,367 posts)
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 02:18 PM Sep 2014

The UN’s New Report on Global Warming Is the Most Terrifying Yet

http://billmoyers.com/2014/08/26/the-uns-new-report-on-global-warming-is-the-most-terrifying-yet/

The UN’s New Report on Global Warming Is the Most Terrifying Yet
August 26, 2014
by John Light



The New York Times and Bloomberg News got a look at a draft of a new UN report on climate change. It’s bleak, to say the least.

From the Times:

Runaway growth on the emission of greenhouse gases is swamping all political efforts to deal with the problem, raising the risk of “severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts” over the coming decades, according to a draft of a major new United Nations report.

Global warming is already cutting grain production by several percentage points, the report found, and that could grow much worse if emissions continue unchecked. Higher seas, devastating heat waves, torrential rain and other climate extremes are also being felt around the world as a result of human emissions, the draft report said, and those problems are likely to intensify unless the gases are brought under control.

The world may already be nearing a temperature at which the loss of the vast ice sheet covering Greenland would become inevitable, the report said. The actual melting would then take centuries, but it would be unstoppable and could result in a sea level rise of 23 feet, with additional increases from other sources like melting Antarctic ice, potentially flooding the world’s major cities.

The draft report is the latest from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and summarizes earlier reports using “blunter, more forceful language.” Read Justin Gillis’ full article for the Times here.

The IPCC’s dire outlook comes amid tentative signs that the needle might be moving on the issue. Earlier this summer, the Obama administration announced plans to implement what is essentially a state-by-state cap and trade program. China announced its intention to do the same.

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The UN’s New Report on Global Warming Is the Most Terrifying Yet (Original Post) G_j Sep 2014 OP
Something we can all do is ZombieHorde Sep 2014 #1
Next report MFM008 Sep 2014 #2
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