日韩精品久久一区二区三区_亚洲色图p_亚洲综合在线最大成人_国产中出在线观看_日韩免费_亚洲综合在线一区

   

Millions face hunger for climate change

(AP)
Updated: 2007-04-11 07:08

MEXICO CITY - Rising global temperatures could melt Latin America's glaciers within 15 years, cause food shortages affecting 130 million people across Asia by 2050 and wipe out Africa's wheat crop, according to a U.N. report released Tuesday.

The report, written and reviewed by hundreds of scientists, outlined dramatic effects of climate change including rising sea levels, the disappearance of species and intensifying natural disasters. It said 30 percent of the world's coastlines could be lost by 2080.

Scientists with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change outlined details of the report in news conferences around the world Tuesday, four days after they released a written summary of their findings. The report is the second of three being issued this year; the first dealt with the physical science of climate change and the third will deal with responses to it.

A couple look at a car that was washed away in flood waters in Sant Antoni de Calonge, Spain, in this Oct. 14, 2005 file photo. [AP]

In Mexico City, scientists predicted that global warming could cost the Brazilian rain forest up to 30 percent of its species and turn large swaths into savannah. They said ocean levels are projected to rise 4.3 feet by 2080 and flood low-lying cities including Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Polar ice caps will likely melt, opening a waterway at the North Pole and threatening to make the Panama Canal obsolete, IPCC member Edmundo de Alba said. Warmer waters will spawn bigger and more dangerous hurricanes that will threaten coastlines not traditionally affected by them.

Latin America's diverse ecosystems will struggle with intense droughts and flooding and as many as 70 million people in the region will be left without enough water, according to the report.

"What's clear is places suffering from drought are going to become drier, and places with a large amount of precipitation are going to see an increase in precipitation," de Alba said.

Many Latin American farmers will have to abandon traditional crops such as corn, rice, wheat and sugar as their soil becomes increasingly saline, and ranchers will have to find new ways to feed their livestock, scientists said.

They warned that governments are doing too little to prepare for the changes.

"We don't have medium- or long-term plans in Latin America. Governments look the other way," IPCC member Osvaldo Canziani said in Buenos Aires.

The report said Africa is most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The fallout from a swiftly warming planet — extreme weather, flooding, outbreaks of disease — will only exacerbate troubles in the world's poorest continent, said Anthony Nyong, one of the lead authors.

Wheat, a staple in Africa, may disappear from the continent by the 2080s, the report said.

Africa has "the least responsibility for climate change and yet it is perversely the continent with the most at risk if greenhouse gases are not cut," said Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program.

But Nyong said African governments cannot rely on outside aid to fix problems from climate change. "It is dangerous ... for African governments to continually and perpetually depend on aid for such things that have such a major impact on what we do," he told reporters in Nairobi, Kenya.

In Asia, nearly 100 million people will face the risk of floods from seas that are expected to rise between 0.04 inches to 0.12 inches annually, slightly higher than the global average.

The report suggests that a 3.6-degree increase in mean air temperature could decrease rain-fed rice yields by 5 percent to 12 percent in China. In Bangladesh, rice production may fall by just under 10 percent and wheat by a third by the year 2050.

The drops in yields combined with rising populations could put close to 50 million extra people at risk of hunger by 2020, 132 million by 2050 and 266 million by 2080, the report said.

"It is absolutely vital that international action is taken now to avoid dangerous climate change," Steiner said. "Otherwise the consequences for food and water security in Asia, as for many other parts of the world are too alarming to contemplate."

In Europe's Mediterranean region, climate change is expected to sap electric power generation, raise sea levels in coastal regions, reverse tourism trends and leave millions of people with water shortages, scientists said.

For Australians and New Zealanders, the warming temperatures will be felt mostly through more extreme weather.

"Heat waves and fires are virtually certain to increase in intensity and frequency," said Kevin Hennessy, a lead author on the chapter for Australia and New Zealand. "Floods, landslides, droughts and storm surges are very likely to become more frequent and intense."



Top World News  
Today's Top News  
Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours
主站蜘蛛池模板: 加勒比 テカ痴女の猛烈交尾 | 日韩美在线 | 无名者电影在线完整版免费 | 香蕉香蕉国产片一级一级毛片 | 久草热在线视频 | 中文字幕免费在线观看动作大片 | 国产午夜精品理论片影院 | 成人三区四区 | 欧美激情二区三区 | a毛片在线| 夜夜未满 18勿进的爽影院 | 在线观看亚洲专区 | 日韩专区在线播放 | 午夜播放器在线观看 | 婷婷在线免费观看 | 欧美大片网站 | 激情a | 国产伦精品一区二区三区高清 | 91精品国产综合久久久久蜜臀 | 伊人欧美 | 男女污污无遮挡免费观看 | 嫩草www | 国产精品丝袜视频 | 久久人人爽人人爽人人片va | 国产精品一区视频 | 狠狠草视频 | 4438激情网| 精品视频一区二区三区 | 激情五月在线 | 天天久久综合网站 | 三级视频网站 | 国产精品第一区 | 久久涩综合 | 精品久久99 | 欧美亚洲一区二区三区在线 | 四虎影业 | 午夜视频免费国产在线 | 舒淇三级浴室洗澡在线观看 | 一区二区三区四区视频 | 久久精品国产99久久久古代 | 香蕉在线影院 |