Thursday, September 27, 2012

Climate change is already causing deaths and cutting GDP

Priyanka Boghani in the Global Post: Climate change will cost more than 100 million lives and 3.2 percent of global gross domestic product by the year 2030 if it is ignored, according to a new report released on Wednesday.

The report was conducted by the humanitarian organization DARA and commissioned by the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a partnership of 20 developing countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, according to Reuters.

The rise of global average temperatures will cause extreme weather, drought and rising sea levels, threatening populations and economies, said the report. According to the report's calculation, at least five million deaths each year are the result of air pollution, disease and hunger fueled by climate change.

The report, titled Climate Vulnerability Monitor: A Guide to the Cold Calculus of A Hot Planet, said that climate change is already responsible for nearly 400,000 deaths annually and costs the world more than $1.2 trillion, reducing  the global GDP by 1.6 percent annually, according to the Guardian.

Climate change is already causing deaths in developing countries, due to extreme weather causing crops to fail, leading to malnutrition and poverty in the local populations, said the report. The deaths caused by air pollution were counted separately, and amounted to nearly 4.5 million people a year, according to the study....

Nothing like an Albrecht Durer woodcut illustrating the book of Revelations for an article like this. This one is called "Der Engelkampf"

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