Climate Progress: An insider's view of climate science, politics, and solutions

Bring your tissue to this one. Friday the IPCC publicizes its ‘emotional heart’, the second Working Group’s contribution to the Fourth Assesment Report covering impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability.

Preliminary drafts have been leaked and why is it shaping up to be such a tear-jerker? According to Andrew Weaver, a lead author of Working Group I and climate scientist at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, this one illustrates

a highway to extinction, but on this highway there are many turnoffs. This is showing you where the road is heading. The road is heading toward extinction.

As many as one-third of the species we know are set for extinction if they’re unable to migrate in mass accompanying another 1-2 degrees C rise (2-4 degrees Fahrenheit).

Humanity is also bound to hit a series of obstacles–some one to two billion people face water scarcity, increased drought, malnutrition, and the spread of infectious diseases. It’s true that climate change is uncharted territory, but it doesn’t have to be a crash course.

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This entry was posted by Joe on Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007 at 11:05 am and is filed under Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.