BILLIONS face death from hunger, drought, disease and natural disasters, the world’s climate change experts warned yesterday.
Years of rising sea levels will also destroy coastal cities like New York and Tokyo.
And a third of the planet’s animals and plants could be wiped out. The doomsday scenario is the bleakest yet from scientists, who blamed man-made greenhouse gases.
The shock report from the influential United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — the leading world authority on the subject — said up to 3.2billion people will face water shortages within 80 years. A further 600million could be left starving. Millions more will die in heatwaves, wildfires, droughts and storms triggered by global warming.
The IPCC report, using research by 2,500 scientists in 130 countries, was approved unanimously by governments meeting in Brussels.
IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri urged the world to “pay attention” to the findings, saying: “It is a global responsibility.”
Greenpeace called it “a glimpse into an apocalyptic future.” Friends of the Earth dubbed it “a looming humanitarian catastrophe”.
Next month the IPCC, which says scientists are 90 per cent sure humans are to blame, will report how to beat it.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007160112,00.html