Global warming affects all people on Earth
Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability [pdf] the report of Working Group II of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which took six years to assemble and draws from the 2500 survey Scientists more than 130 countries also makes clear that while the poor around the world will suffer most from the effects of global warming, no person on Earth will escape the consequences. The effects of global warming will be felt in all regions and all levels of society.

“It is the poorest of the poor in the world – and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies – which are the most serious consequences”, said Rajendra K Pachauri, the chairman of the expert group and an action by India. “Persons are poor are least equipped to be able to adapt to the impacts of climate change and thus in some sense, this is a global responsibility, in my opinion. “

The summary report on the effects of global warming, is part of two of the four part of the IPCC report to be released in stages during the year 2007. The first part, released in February 2007, confirmed with 90 percent certainty that global warming is unstoppable and now the man responsible for a significant proportion of greenhouse gases trapping heat that caused global temperatures to increase dramatically after mid 20th century.

We need urgent action to reduce global warming
Rising global temperatures could bring some temporary benefits, according to the report, and especially to increase food production because of rain and longer growing seasons in the mid-high latitudes and least number of deaths linked to cold. But these scientists expect short-term benefits to be offset by an increase in droughts, floods, water shortages and hunger in other areas, and more deaths and disease around the world.

“It is now clear that we are jointly responsible for warming the past 50 years, and this is already causing adverse changes in our planet,” said Catherine Pearce, climate campaigner for Friends of the Earth International. “Unless we act now to reduce emissions, is much worse to come, condemning millions in the poorest regions of the world for the loss of lives, livelihoods and homes. Climate change is no longer simply an environmental issue. This is a Excluding humanitarian disaster, which ultimately threaten global security and survival. “

Conclusions of the report include:

* Projected climate change are likely to affect millions of people who are already vulnerable. Heat waves, floods, storms, droughts, fires and will result in increased deaths, diseases and other damage. Global warming is also expected to lead to more deaths due to malnutrition, diseases that cause diarrhea, cardiovascular disease associated with high concentrations of ground-level ozone, and a wide distribution of diseases transmitted by insects, rodents etc.

* Millions more people are projected to be at risk of flooding due to rising sea levels, especially in densely populated and low, settlements, which already face other challenges, such as hurricanes and tropical storms.

* About 20-30 percent of plant and animal species assessed so far are likely to be at greater risk of extinction if increases in global average temperature exceed 1.5-2.5 degrees Celsius. The global average temperature has already risen 0.74 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

* During the past century, water supplies stored in glaciers and snow cover are projected to decline, reducing water availability in regions supplied by meltwater from major mountain ranges, where more than a sixth of the world’s population now lives. For example, glacial retreat in the Himalayas will disrupt water supplies downstream, which will affect billions of people across India, China, Nepal and Butão.

* In 2020, 75-250 million people in Africa are exposed to scarcity of water due to climate change.

* During the same period, the income of African rain-fed agriculture in some countries could be reduced by 50 percent.

* Latin America faces a substantial risk of loss of biodiversity by mid-century, as the increase in temperature and soil moisture decreases associated leads to a gradual replacement of tropical forest into savanna in parts of the Amazon region.

* People who live in small islands, such as those found in the Caribbean and the Pacific, are particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels, extreme weather, and deterioration of coastal conditions associated with global warming. Climate change is expected to reduce water resources in many small islands and adversely affect the livelihood of island communities, crippling fisheries, tourism and other key components of island economies.

“Our study shows that only tropical rainforests are beneficial, which helps slow down global warming,” said team leader Govindasamy Bala of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

Forests affects our climate in many different ways: by absorbing carbon dioxide (the main gas of greenhouse effect) to help cooling down the planet, water evaporation, cloud formation, that helps preserving the planet cooler and the absorption of sunlight with their dark leaves, which is warming the Earth.

Trees that grow in snow covered places like Canada, Scandinavia and Siberia absorb sunlight that would otherwise be reflected back into space, bright white snow.

But tropical rainforests trap larger quantities of carbon dioxide and evaporate more water to produce clouds that reflect sunlight back into space.

“Tropical forests are like Earth’s air conditioning,” said Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Bala, comrades.

Simulating the effects of deforestation in different parts of the world, including the study which was published on Apr 9 online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that deforestation, which tropics is more devastating to the Earth’s climate than deforestation in higher latitudes, and trees among high latitudes might lead to warming.

But do not take ths facts like this is the time when you should take an axe and chop down all the trees that are not growing in tropics, scientists warn.

“The main reason why it aims to slow global warming, to protect nature,” said Caldeira. “It simply makes no sense to destroy natural ecosystems name of saving natural ecosystems.”