Forget about orange groves in Wisconsin - if you're one of those irrepressible optimists who believes that global warming could actually improve life for those in Northern climes, think again. A new report out of the UK, titled An Uncertain Future: Law Enforcement, National Security and Climate Change, predicts that by the middle of the century, unchecked climate change will cause massive social upheaval around the world, including Europe and North America.
The report says that one of the chief challenges will be hundreds of millions of environmental refugees being driven from the the hardest hit countries in the south to developed nations in the northern hemisphere. However, there will also be home-grown problems in wealthier regions, as more frequent climate disasters like floods and heat waves outpace the ability of governments to find resources to deal with them. The report also suggests that climate "events' will have a major and unhappy impact on "communication, transport and energy supply networks", as sea levels rise and serious storms increase in number and intensity.
The study doesn't spend time recommending that more be done to curb CO2 emissions, focussing instead on coping measures such as the building of flood defences, creating local and renewable energy sources, and initiating international discussions on what to do with environmental refugees. These kind of ideas, while useful, leave the distinct impression that the authors believe catastrophic climate change is inevitable, and that the best we can do now is try to deal with the consequences.
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