Prof Sir David King and Climate Change
Prof David King, the government’s chief scientific adviser, now says that a 3 degrees Celsius global rise in temperature, caused by 550 parts per million of CO2, would lead to:
- a drop worldwide of between 20 and 400 million tonnes in cereal crops, leaving 400 million more people at risk of hunger
- between 1.2bn and 3bn more people at risk of water stress
- few ecosystems (like natural forests) could adapt
- half of nature reserves would cease to be worthwhile
- a fifth of coastal wetlands would be lost.
What’s important is that King added that “it was essential that people did not fall into despair about climate change, because the worst effects could be still avoided with action.”
The bright side is that if we can hold the line at 400 ppm of CO2, we can keep the temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius.
Does this sound like a situation where half-stepping will work, where Labour’s drip-feeding of renewable energy technologies fits?
- a drop worldwide of between 20 and 400 million tonnes in cereal crops, leaving 400 million more people at risk of hunger
- between 1.2bn and 3bn more people at risk of water stress
- few ecosystems (like natural forests) could adapt
- half of nature reserves would cease to be worthwhile
- a fifth of coastal wetlands would be lost.
What’s important is that King added that “it was essential that people did not fall into despair about climate change, because the worst effects could be still avoided with action.”
The bright side is that if we can hold the line at 400 ppm of CO2, we can keep the temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius.
Does this sound like a situation where half-stepping will work, where Labour’s drip-feeding of renewable energy technologies fits?
posted by scott redding at 11:24 am
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