FACTBOX: U.N. panel issues stark climate change warning

Sat Apr 7, 2007 2:26am EDT
 
Email | Print | | Reprints | Single Page
[-] Text [+]

(Reuters) - The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the top world authority on global warming, issued a report on Friday based on the findings of 2,500 scientists.

More than 100 countries agreed on the following:

PROBLEMS SO FAR

-- Since the mid-20th century, rising temperatures are changing the face of the globe, mostly due to human production of greenhouse gases.

-- Researchers examined areas such as when trees sprout, compiled 29,000 sets of data and found that 90 percent of them pointed to global warming.

-- They say, with "medium confidence", that there have been more heat-related deaths in Europe, more infectious diseases and more pollen allergies because of global warming.

FUTURE FLOODS, DROUGHTS

-- Dry areas will get drier. In some countries, crop yields could drop by 50 percent by 2020.

-- The effect on agriculture will be uneven, with production increasing modestly in some places as it falls in others. As temperatures rise, the effects will change.  Continued...

 

Featured Broker sponsored link

Editor's Choice

Photo

A selection of our best photos from the past 24 hours.  View Slideshow 

Most Popular on Reuters

Photo
Bearing Witness
Reuters award-winning multimedia piece, reflecting five years of reporting the war in Iraq.