UN: Humanity’s very survival is at risk

The speed at which mankind has used the Earth’s resources over the past 20 years has put “humanity’s very survival” at risk, a study involving 1,400 scientists has concluded.

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… each person in the world now requires a third more land to supply his or her needs than the Earth can supply.

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Thirty per cent of amphibians, 23 per cent of mammals and 12 per cent of birds are under threat of extinction, while one in ten of the world’s major rivers runs dry every year before it reaches the sea.

Cited from Timesonline

Economics of tackling climate change

The third report from an international group of scientists on the effects of climate change focuses on how to reduce carbon emissions and minimise their effects. The article provide a guide to the key areas where the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) believes the reductions can be achieved.

Full text article at BBC News

Climate threat to biodiversity

Global temperatures predicted for the coming centuries could trigger a mass extinction, UK scientists have warned. The temperatures are within the range of greenhouse phases early in the Earth’s history when up to 95% of plants and animals died out, they say.

Full text article at BBC News

Similar articles:

• Extinctions Linked to Hotter Temperatures [FOX News]
• Climate change ‘extinctions’ warning [Guardian Unlimited]

World’s carbon dioxide emissions rising at alarming rate

“Carbon dioxide is rising at a much faster rate than before,” says study co-author Christopher Field, director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology in California. “In the 1990s, CO2 emissions increased by about 1.3% per year. Since 2000, the growth rate has been 3.3% per year.” The researchers calculate that global carbon-dioxide emissions were 35% higher in 2006 than in 1990.

Canadell says that while the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts “we will have temperature increases of 3.2 to 7.1 degrees by the end of the century, … we’re well on the way to the higher temperature increase if the emissions keep going up at this rate.”

Full text article at USAToday.com