The World Wildlife Foundation is again reporting that "the world's diverse regions and ecosystems are close to temperature thresholds -- or "tipping points."
The Associated Press is reporting that global warming's impacts are far worse than even the most dire predictions of the 1990's.
Warming's impacts sped up, worsened since Kyoto
Since the 1997 international accord to fight global warming, climate change has worsened and accelerated — beyond some of the grimmest of warnings made back then.
As the world has talked for a dozen years about what to do next, new ship passages opened through the once frozen summer sea ice of the Arctic. In Greenland and Antarctica, ice sheets have lost trillions of tons of ice. Mountain glaciers in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa are shrinking faster than before.
Now a report for the insurance industry says coastal cities will suffer an estimated $28 trillion in warming-related costs:
Sea level rise could cost port cities $28 trillion
A possible rise in sea levels by 0.5 meters by 2050 could put at risk more than $28 trillion worth of assets in the world's largest coastal cities, according to a report compiled for the insurance industry.
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According to the report, carried out by the UK-based Tyndall Centre, the impacts of passing "Tipping Points" on the livelihoods of people and economic assets have been underestimated.
Global temperatures have already risen by at least 0.7 degrees Celsius and the report says a further rise by 2-3 degrees in the second half of the century is likely unless deep cuts in emissions are put in place before 2015.
The consequent melting of the Greenland and the West Antarctic Ice Shield could lead to one such tipping point scenario, possibly a sea level rise of up to 0.5 meters by 2050.
As the Kyoto predictions have shown, these estimates are usually underestimated.
Republicans and some Democrats taking energy industry money are leading the world to a nightmarish future. They are gambling away the future of the world's diverse species, including humans, for their ill-gotten money. They have bribed ideologues to join their evil cause. These people with their disgusting greed obviously don't even give a shit about their own children.