World Bank Report Warns 'Catastrophic Consequences' of Global Warming
Published on Monday, November 19, 2012 by Common Dreams
World Bank Report Warns 'Catastrophic Consequences' of Global Warming
Economic group's call to action acknowledges climate campaigners' years of warning
- Common Dreams staff
The World Bank is the latest organization to raise alarm against the undeniable threat of climate change. Launched Monday, 'Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4°C Warmer World Must be Avoided' (pdf) details the catastrophic consequences, specifically within developing nations, of ignoring the global warming crisis.
The analysis, conducted by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, focuses on a revised point-of-no-return temperature rise of 4°C (7.24°F) by the end of the century, a threshold, according to the report, that will likely "trigger widespread crop failures and malnutrition and dislocate large numbers of people from land inundated by rising seas."
World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim, admitted in a briefing last week that despite world climate goals to hold the average temperature increase to under 2°C, "scientists agree that countries' current emission pledges and commitments under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change would most likely result in 3.5-4°C warming." Adding that "the longer those pledges remain unmet, the more likely it is that we will be living in a world that is four degrees warmer by the end of this century."
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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/11/19-1