Council on Foreign Relations (CFR): Daily News Brief March 31, 2014 Top of the Agenda UN Report Details New Threats of Climate Change: A new United Nations report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change raised the threat (NYT) of global warming, warning of sweeping consequences to the environment and livelihood. The thirty-two-volume report, a three-year joint effort by hundreds of scientists, noted that a warmer world was posing a threat to global food stocks, pushing up food prices and triggering hotspots of hunger among the worlds poor (Guardian). Its effects also include melting sea ice and a thawing Arctic, the killing of coral reefs in the oceans, and weather-related disasters. The report, released Monday, was the most authoritative so far from the UN climate panel, although disagreement has already surfaced (FT) among two of the reports scientists. Analysis Contrarians have tried to spin the conclusions of the report to incorrectly argue that it would be cheaper to try and adapt to climate change and pay the costs of climate damages. In reality the report says no such thing, writes Dana Nuccitelli for the Guardian. In climate science, the real debate has never been between deniers and the rest, but between lukewarmers, who think man-made climate change is real but fairly harmless, and those who think the future is alarming, writes Matt Ridley for the Wall Street Journal. The melting of Arctic sea ice to record lows in recent years has prompted many nations, principally those with Arctic Ocean coastlines—the United States, Canada, Russia, Norway, and Denmark (Greenland)—to reassess their commitments and interests in the icy reaches atop the globe, says this CFR Infoguide on the Arctic.
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 14:24:28 +0000
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