The Threat of Climate Change

The World Bank has just released a major report "Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4° Warmer World Must be Avoided", available at http://climatechange.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/Turn_Down_the_he…. The actions pledged by governments so far to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are insufficient to keep the planet below a 2°C temperature rise in this century, making a rise of 4°C or more increasingly likely. The report summarizes the latest scientific data on the present trends and probably implications of such a rise in temperature, and the vision presented is frightening.

The report concludes that, while "uncertainty remains about the full nature and scale of impacts, there is also no certainty that adaptation to a 4°C world is possible. A 4°C world is likely to be one in which communities, cities and countries would experience severe disruptions, damage, and dislocation, with many of these risks spread unequally. It is likely that the poor will suffer most and the global community could become more fractured, and unequal than today. The projected 4°C warming simply must not be allowed to occur—the heat must be turned down. Only early, cooperative, international actions can make that happen."