Climate Change To Increase Risk Of Conflict, Natural Disaster, Hunger, U.N. Report Says

News outlets discuss a new report from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that says climate change will adversely affect health, food security, and economic and political stability.

Agence France-Presse: Climate change boosts conflict risk, floods, hunger: U.N.
“Soaring carbon emissions will amplify the risk of conflict, hunger, floods and mass migration this century, the U.N.’s expert panel said Monday in a landmark report on the impact of climate change…” (Hiyama, 3/30).

BBC News: Climate impacts ‘overwhelming’ — U.N.
“The impacts of global warming are likely to be ‘severe, pervasive and irreversible,’ a major report by the U.N. has warned. Scientists and officials meeting in Japan say the document is the most comprehensive assessment to date of the impacts of climate change on the world…” (McGrath, 3/31).

The Guardian: Climate change: the poor will suffer most
“Pensioners left on their own during a heatwave in industrialized countries. Single mothers in rural areas. Workers who spend most of their days outdoors. Slum dwellers in the megacities of the developing world. These are some of the vulnerable groups who will feel the brunt of climate change as its effects become more pronounced in the coming decades, according to a game-changing report from the U.N.’s climate panel released on Monday…” (Goldenberg, 3/30).

New York Times: Panel’s Warning on Climate Risk: Worst Is Yet to Come
“…The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations group that periodically summarizes climate science, concluded that ice caps are melting, sea ice in the Arctic is collapsing, water supplies are coming under stress, heat waves and heavy rains are intensifying, coral reefs are dying, and fish and many other creatures are migrating toward the poles or in some cases going extinct…” (Gillis, 3/30).

Reuters: Threat from global warming heightened in latest U.N. report
“Global warming poses a growing threat to the health, economic prospects, and food and water sources of billions of people, top scientists said in a report that urges swift action to counter the effects of carbon emissions…” (Sheldrick/Meyers, 3/31).

Washington Post: U.N. climate panel: Governments, businesses need to take action now against growing risks
“The world’s leading environmental scientists told policymakers and business leaders Sunday that they must invest more to cope with climate change’s immediate effects and hedge against its most dire potential, even as they work to slow the emissions fueling global warming…” (Mufson, 3/30).

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