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Climate change already killing millions - report

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Climate change already killing millions - report

3News NZ

Since the industrial revolution, the world's temperature has risen 0.8degC

Since the industrial revolution, the world's temperature has risen 0.8degC

By Dan Satherley

Climate change and carbon-based air pollution kills an estimated 5 million people a year, and already costs the world US$1.2 trillion annually, according to a new report.

Commissioned by the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a coalition of 20 countries, Climate Vulnerability Monitor: A Guide To The Cold Calculus Of A Hot Planet says by 2030, the cost of climate change will rise to 3.2 percent of world GDP and deaths will top 6 million – with developing countries taking most of the brunt.

 The report said the cost of combating climate change – around 0.5 percent of global GDP – was dwarfed by the costs of doing nothing.

"A combined climate-carbon crisis is estimated to claim 100 million lives between now and the end of the next decade."

More than 90 percent of the deaths will occur in developing countries, which also face sacrificing 5 to 10 percent of their economies.

"One degree Celsius rise in temperature is associated with 10 percent productivity loss in farming," Bangladesh's prime minister Sheikh Hasina told Reuters.

"For us, it means losing about 4 million metric tonnes of food grain, amounting to about $2.5 billion. That is about 2 percent of our GDP… Adding up the damages to property and other losses, we are faced with a total loss of about 3 or 4 percent of GDP."

Since the industrial revolution, the world's average temperature has risen 0.8degC. Arctic ice levels set new lows this year, and extreme weather events are becoming more common.

"Climate change and weather extremes are not about a distant future," European Union climate chief Connie Hedegaard wrote in The Guardian last week.

"Formerly one-off extreme weather episodes seem to be becoming the new normal."

The full report is available at http://daraint.org.

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Comments

17/10/2012 1:59:33 p.m.

Jim wrote:

Hmm, 5 million per year - Statistics:
Population end of WW2 = 2 Billion approx, Population 1960's = 4.5 billion approx, now 7 billion approx.... So, how is global change affecting our population again?!!!

28/09/2012 7:31:47 a.m.

Wiseacre wrote:

@SAM - You are in denial. While it is good to be skeptical - and I agree that some of the claims in this article are speculative - some things are no longer contestable. What we are experiencing is anthropogenic climate change. Multiple lines of evidence confirm that the post-industrial rise in greenhouse gases does not stem from natural mechanisms. Scientists are convinced that it is human activity which has increased the proportion of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which has skyrocketed over the past few hundred years. How can you possibly say that climate change and carbon-based air pollution are "2 different issues"? Of course "Air pollution comes from cars, burning coal etc, not from extreme weather" - no one is saying otherwise. It is the air pollution that is *causing* the extreme weather.

28/09/2012 1:01:29 a.m.

Al Bore wrote:

Climate change could be viewed in the future as war criminals. They condemn billions of helpless children to the greenhouse gas ovens and this publication gives these criminals air time? Nice job girls. 26 years of needless panic and CO2 death threats is a war crime that the future will deal with. History is watching this CO2 death insanity. Further threatening and fear mongering of the voter's children to their CO2 demise all but guarantees neocon rule. WE are the big green fear machine now and we are demanding votes otherwise the planet dies? How is this progressive? Vote Dem or the neocons kill the planet and our kids? Does 26 years of science warning us that climate change crisis “could” happen instead of “will” happen, make climate change true? Science has never said it “WILL” happen while they cry we could be at the brink of no return, maybe. Help my house is on fire maybe? How close to the edge of destruction will science take us before they finally say it will happen, not just might happen? Find us one single IPCC warning that isn’t sprinkled with “maybes” and “probablys” and…….. This planet lover is happy a crisis was exaggerated after all.

27/09/2012 6:40:17 p.m.

Sam wrote:

"Climate change and carbon-based air pollution kills an estimated 5 million people a year." What a load of diarrhea! They're 2 different issues. Air pollution comes from cars, burning coal etc, not from extreme weather. So if you're going to say climate change kills millions, you can't count those that are affected by air quality. "One degree Celsius rise in temperature is associated with 10 percent productivity loss in farming," Another fantastic piece of propoganda that's no more than guess work! Computer models showing what will happen have been erratic at best. Tackle the real problem of land degredation and misuse in developing countries, which definately reduces harvests, than speculating on future weather events. "More than 90 percent of the deaths will occur in developing countries, which also face sacrificing 5 to 10 percent of their economies." Another piece of speculation. What's more likely to cause caos is peak oil combined with another finacial crisis, which are real, but you won't hear about that since it's not in the governments' money making interests, unlike the great human-caused climate change swindle that would make Goebbels proud!

27/09/2012 12:33:53 p.m.

Greg wrote:

Yawn, and we care, Il wave my magic wand and fix things. NZs stuck at the bottom of the world we wont make one bit of difference to the planets lifecycle. Learn to build a iggloo.