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CLIMATE CHANGE 'WILL MAKE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS HOMELESS' - THE GUARDIAN
17:01 ~U 12.05.13
Robin McKie
It is increasingly likely that hundreds of millions of people will be
displaced from their homelands in the near future as a result of global
warming. That is the stark warning of economist and climate change
expert Lord Stern following the news last week that concentrations
of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere had reached a level of 400 parts
per million (ppm).
Massive movements of people are likely to occur over the rest of the
century because global temperatures are likely to rise to by up to
5C because carbon dioxide levels have risen unabated for 50 years,
said Stern, who is head of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate
Change.
"When temperatures rise to that level, we will have disrupted weather
patterns and spreading deserts," he said. "Hundreds of millions of
people will be forced to leave their homelands because their crops and
animals will have died. The trouble will come when they try to migrate
into new lands, however. That will bring them into armed conflict with
people already living there. Nor will it be an occasional occurrence.
It could become a permanent feature of life on Earth."
The news that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have reached 400ppm has
been seized on by experts because that level brings the world close
to the point where it becomes inevitable that it will experience a
catastrophic rise in temperatures. Scientists have warned for decades
of the danger of allowing industrial outputs of carbon dioxide to
rise unchecked.
Instead, these outputs have accelerated. In the 1960s, carbon dioxide
levels rose at a rate of 0.7ppm a year. Today, they rise at 2.1ppm,
as more nations become industrialised and increase outputs from their
factories and power plants. The last time the Earth's atmosphere had
400ppm carbon dioxide, the Arctic was ice-free and sea levels were
40 metres higher.
The prospect of Earth returning to these climatic conditions is
causing major alarm. As temperatures rise, deserts will spread and
life-sustaining weather patterns such as the North Indian monsoon
could be disrupted. Agriculture could fail on a continent-wide
basis and hundreds of millions of people would be rendered homeless,
triggering widespread conflict.
There are likely to be severe physical consequences for the planet.
Rising temperatures will shrink polar ice caps - the Arctic's is now
at its lowest since records began - and so reduce the amount of solar
heat they reflect back into space. Similarly, thawing of the permafrost
lands of Alaska, Canada and Russia could release even more greenhouse
gases, including methane, and further intensify global warming.
Armenian News - Tert.am
From: A. Papazian
17:01 ~U 12.05.13
Robin McKie
It is increasingly likely that hundreds of millions of people will be
displaced from their homelands in the near future as a result of global
warming. That is the stark warning of economist and climate change
expert Lord Stern following the news last week that concentrations
of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere had reached a level of 400 parts
per million (ppm).
Massive movements of people are likely to occur over the rest of the
century because global temperatures are likely to rise to by up to
5C because carbon dioxide levels have risen unabated for 50 years,
said Stern, who is head of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate
Change.
"When temperatures rise to that level, we will have disrupted weather
patterns and spreading deserts," he said. "Hundreds of millions of
people will be forced to leave their homelands because their crops and
animals will have died. The trouble will come when they try to migrate
into new lands, however. That will bring them into armed conflict with
people already living there. Nor will it be an occasional occurrence.
It could become a permanent feature of life on Earth."
The news that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have reached 400ppm has
been seized on by experts because that level brings the world close
to the point where it becomes inevitable that it will experience a
catastrophic rise in temperatures. Scientists have warned for decades
of the danger of allowing industrial outputs of carbon dioxide to
rise unchecked.
Instead, these outputs have accelerated. In the 1960s, carbon dioxide
levels rose at a rate of 0.7ppm a year. Today, they rise at 2.1ppm,
as more nations become industrialised and increase outputs from their
factories and power plants. The last time the Earth's atmosphere had
400ppm carbon dioxide, the Arctic was ice-free and sea levels were
40 metres higher.
The prospect of Earth returning to these climatic conditions is
causing major alarm. As temperatures rise, deserts will spread and
life-sustaining weather patterns such as the North Indian monsoon
could be disrupted. Agriculture could fail on a continent-wide
basis and hundreds of millions of people would be rendered homeless,
triggering widespread conflict.
There are likely to be severe physical consequences for the planet.
Rising temperatures will shrink polar ice caps - the Arctic's is now
at its lowest since records began - and so reduce the amount of solar
heat they reflect back into space. Similarly, thawing of the permafrost
lands of Alaska, Canada and Russia could release even more greenhouse
gases, including methane, and further intensify global warming.
Armenian News - Tert.am
From: A. Papazian