Censored Snippets From The Original IPCC 2nd Report

[hatrack]

“Population growth and development in coastal areas are very likely to increase risks and economic losses from sea-level rise, severe weather, and storm surge,” if global warming is left unchecked by the end of the century, warns the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “Current adaptation is uneven and readiness for increased exposure is low.”

But don’t look for these warnings in the final Summary for Policymakers of the latest IPCC report, “Climate Change 2007: Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability” — because you won’t find them. At the request of the U.S. government, this language was edited out before the final version of the summary was released to the public on Friday. In the original draft, posted online yesterday by the activist group Climate Science Watch, the U.N. scientists also wanted to tell us that if temperatures rise four degrees Celsius (seven degrees Fahrenheit) from 1990 levels that the world could face a 29-45 centimeter (1-1.5 feet) sea-level rise.

The sea-level rise projections appeared at the bottom of a chart that helpfully laid out the potential impacts on each major area of the world at each degree of temperature rise.



For example, with temperatures four degrees Celsius higher than in 1990, Asia could see up to seven million more people at risk from flooding; dry areas in Africa could grow by up to eight percent; 45 percent of tree species in the Amazon rainforest could go extinct; and in North America, major cities could suffer up to eight times more weat waves. But apparently the governments of China, Russia and Saudi Arabia who also edited the original summary along with the U.S. didn’t want us to see the chart or read any specific numbers on sea-level rise at all, since the whole chart is missing from the redacted final summary.



EDIT

http://www.conservemag.com/2007/04/08/global-warming/un-censored-ipcc-report-much-bleaker/

[progressoid]

1. It's these kind of posts that give me pause...

Sometimes I wonder if life wouldn't be a lot easier if I could just do the fundie thing, stick my head in the sand, and pretend that god would fix everything.

Reality sucks.

[YankeyMCC]

2. K & R