The Kyoto Protocol goes into effect on Feb 16, no thanks to the USA or Australia. The "Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change" conference starts tonight in the UK. So far, only a handful of Australian papers (
like this one)have reported a stunning estimate of climate change casualties:
According to a World Health Organisation report to be presented at the UK conference, a 2C rise in average global temperatures could put between two and three billion people at risk of water shortages and disease.
The same paper, which was co-authored by Australian National University scientist Professor Tony McMichael, found more than 160,000 people died last year as a result of climate change since the mid-1970s.
I looked at the WHO website and didn't find the report yet.
The program for the conference links to several papers for presentations such as:
Towards a Risk Assessment for shutdown of the Atlantic Thermohaline
Probability of Rapid Climate Change
The Role of Sea Level Rise and the Greenland Ice Sheet in Dangerous Climate Change and Issues of Climate Stabilisation