THE 21st CENTURY CLIMATE CHALLENGE

Heat trapping gases sent into the atmosphere in 2008 will stay there until 2108 and beyond. We are therefore making choices today that will affect our own lives, as well as the lives of our children and grandchildren. “This makes climate change different and more difficult than other policy challenges.”

Deaths from global warming will double in 25 years.

Sea levels could rise rapidly with accelerated ice sheet disintegration. Global temperature increases of 3–4°C could cause 330 million people being permanently or temporarily displaced through flooding.

Gas-fueled cars cause almost 25% of US CO2 emissions. Compared to similar gas models, hybrids cut emissions in half. l


1.8 billion people could be living in a water scarce environment by 2080.

Failure to deal with global climate change will consign 2.6 billion people —40% of the world’s population—to a future of diminished opportunity. It will exacerbate deep inequalities between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ within countries, undermining efforts  to build a more inclusive pattern of globalization.

An increase around 2°C is the threshold for dangerous climate change —the point at which irreversible ecological damage would become very difficult to avoid.

Current concentrations of greenhouse gases, 380 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), exceed the natural range of the last 650,000 years. During the 21st Century, average global temperatures could increase by more than 5°C -- equivalent to the change in temperature since the last ice age—an era in which much of Europe and North America was under more than one kilometer of ice.

World temperatures have increased approximately 0.7°C since the start of the industrial era—and quickly rising. Beyond a threshold of 2°C the risk of large-scale human development setbacks and irreversible ecological catastrophes will increase sharply.

The carbon footprint of the United States is 5 times that of China and over 15 times that of India. In Ethiopia, the average per capita carbon footprint is 0.1 tons of CO2 compared with 20 tons in Canada.

Avoiding dangerous climate change will require rich nations to cut emissions by at least 80%, with cuts of 30 % by 2020. Emissions from developing countries would peak around 2020, with cuts of 20% by 2050.

262 million people were affected by climate disasters annually from 2000 to 2004, over 98% of them in the developing world. In the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries 1 in 1,500 people was affected by climate disaster. The comparable figure for developing countries is one in 19—a risk differential of 79.

In Ethiopia and Kenya, two of the world’s most drought–prone countries, children aged 5 or younger are respectively 36% and 50% more likely to be malnourished if they were born during a drought. Translating into some 2 million additional malnourished Ethiopian children in 2005.

For more information, visit: http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_20072008_Summary_English.pdf

Landfills leach toxic chemicals into the ground and produce methane, a gas far more potent than the CO2 from car or factory emissions in terms of its effect on global warming.

In 2000, recycling of solid waste prevented the release of 32.9 million metric tons of carbon equivalent (MMTCE, the unit of measure for greenhouse gases) into the air.


SIGNS OF GLOBAL WARMING

Scientists have correlated the increase of Pacific red tides and other harmful algae blooms with a rise in ocean temperature of approximately one degree Celsius as well as increased nutrients in coastal waters from sewage and fertilizers.


“One thing that we share in common. It is called planet Earth. All nations and all people share the same atmosphere.”