World Resources Report: Leaders Will Have To Adapt To Climate Change

A new report released this week suggests that world governments need to prepare for the likelihood of climate change in the coming decades, especially in the face of more frequent and extreme weather events.

The 2010-2011 World Resources Report, entitled "Decision Making In A Changing Climate," is a joint effort of the World Resources Institute, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Bank.

According to the executive summary, the report is comprised of research and consultations in 30 countries, and aims to give policymakers, especially in developing countries, the tools to adapt to short and long-term climate change risks.

It noted, "Some countries are already making an impressive start in addressing these elements and accounting for climate risks. Others, however, are just beginning to grasp the enormity of the challenge -- even as they are dealing with the pressing demands for energy, jobs, education, and health care."

An ongoing water crisis on the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu may point to future global problems associated with rising sea levels. Tuvalu's low-lying islands have had to begin using desalinated water, as rising sea levels are partly to blame for contamination in precious groundwater supplies.

The report's authors contend that recognizing and adapting to climate change will be a multi-faceted endeavor. Olav Kjorven, director of the Bureau for Development Policy at UNDP, said, "Governments must start now to incorporate climate risks into plans and policies across all sectors, including urban development, coastal planning, agriculture, water and forestry management, and electricity production," reported Inter Press Service.

Looking at 2010, the World Resources Institute believes the number of weather-related natural disasters offers a glimpse of the sorts of challenges world leaders will face in the future. They cite research from insurance company Munich Re, which found that 90 percent of the world's 950 natural disasters in 2010 were weather-related. As the second-worst year for natural disasters since 1980, losses amounted to $130 billion in 2010.

Munich Re was named the greenest company in the world in Newsweek's 2011 Green Rankings.

This week, the world's largest investors group, representing 285 organizations and over $20 trillion in assets, claimed that current investment in low-carbon technology is too low and implored governments to take "urgent policy action to tackle climate change and stimulate investment in clean technology."

The president of a conservative environmental group recently told HuffPost he thinks the Republican Party has "lost its way" by diverging from the traditionally conservative and Republican values of conservation and environmental stewardship.

According to the final report, "Decision making in a changing climate requires addressing three different types of change to the Earth’s climate system: more frequent or intense climate extremes, heightened variability, and long-term change."

For more information and to read the full World Resources Report, click here.

Comments

[Cindbird]

10:39 AM on 10/28/2011

There are things that can be done to help right now. Like here in Alabama. We had the horror of the tornadoes back in April. Not only are we rebuilding the house and businesses, but the Realtor's Association and the Cities of Birmingham and Tuscaloosa are also replanting trees in the damaged areas. Almost 5 thousand trees will be replanted. And in the Talladega National Forest they are replanting another 5000 to replaced those uprooted or damaged by the storms. It's things like this that usually get overlooked in the rebuilding. But the trees are an important part of our environment. And replacing them will help to not only make the areas look good, but will also return an important part of the ecosystem.

[Joshua Helix Guzman]

05:26 AM on 10/24/2011

You want to solve many energy problems? It's easy; build geothermal plants. Produces enormous amounts of clean energy that never runs out. Imagine a world with free electricity, and never having to burn fossil fuels for power (I refuse to stop using charcoal for barbeques, the charred taste of meat is too good to let go). Really simple.

[REMEMBER2050]

03:03 AM on 11/06/2011

You need them in the right areas--they're not the best choice for every region, but there are PLENTY of other choices too. The various technologies to solve the country's problems have been available for ages, but half of America has been fooled into thinking there's still a frigging "debate" and that we need r&d before we can use anything. It's the big lie, and it's paid for by oil, gas, coal, and Koch money.

You want to see other choices, here's a really good publication that came out in 2007: http://ases.org/images/stories/file/ASES/climate_change.pdf

I wouldn't bother to read the individual articles about the technologies unless you're a wonk, but at the beginning definitely read the executive summary and the overview of the studies. Then read the explanation of climate change science at the end.

To give you an idea of what kind of renewables can be used and in what percents, see the chart on page 4 of the executive summary (or page 26 if you look at the Acrobat numbering)--the various technologies were applied by geographic areas to which they are most cost-effective to generate this.

Note the biggest way we can reduce consumption has nothing to do with using renewables! It's energy efficiency--the giant bar on the top of the chart. This means that if all of our buildings were retrofitted to be energy efficient, the country's energy consumption would be cut BY MORE THAN HALF.

[Gottlieb]

11:33 AM on 10/22/2011

The far right fundamentalist Christian base of the Republican Party is opposed to environmentalism so GOP politicians pander to them in service to their fossil fuel fascist paymasters. The name of their astroturf operation is called Resisting the Green Dragon. If you visit their disinformation website http://www.resistingthegreendragon.com/ you will see the usual suspects endorsing the anti science in the upper right corner of their home page.

You cannot argue with people who have now added anti-environmentalism and anti-science to their faith based belief system as directed by their pastors.

[alteredstory]

11:39 AM on 10/22/2011

I have to say, I think "green dragon" is the coolest moniker ever, and I will gladly embrace it.

roar

[iknowscottyknows]

10:12 PM on 10/22/2011

Unlikely.

[Hitchcockcameo]

06:41 AM on 10/22/2011

One can also see the next gambit in Conservative leadership...making the underclasses pay for the excesses of the wealthy. To wit: Cantor's recent insistence that disaster funding be offset by budgetary cuts. This is just the first step my friends. As disasters become more costly, the mouthpieces of the rich will fight to thwart any attempts to hold them accountable, or to make them pay their share of the mess they've help create.

[jimboy71]

04:03 PM on 10/22/2011

It will all backfire horribly in the end, and the longer that we allow this kind of inequity to continue, the more dire the cancer becomes, invading all of the systems of life as we know it.

It is almost as if the rich are asking to be eaten. Do they not get what zombie movies are about?

[sseldorado]

09:35 PM on 10/24/2011

They seem to think they will be just fine without the nanny-state to get in their way. Survival of the" fittest and all". Not realizing they will run out of supplies long before the mall reopens!

[hardycross]

01:37 PM on 10/21/2011

The U.N? Send us more money so we can keep the alarmism going or else no one else will be spreading alarmism.

[TheEmptyMonty]

01:52 PM on 10/21/2011

"Alarmism" is quite the byword of choice for those who slept through high school science class. Pity.

[kwaut lizard]

02:51 PM on 10/21/2011

The 'I don't understand science, so I don't believe in it' out is the lamest excuse I have ever seen for embracing denial. Next they'll be arguing that the world is not overpopulated, that we need to develop more oil and natural gas reserves instead of exploring all possible alternative energy sources, that religious dogma should replace scientific theory in schools and that the EPA should be relegated to the history books.
Oh, wait ... what century is this?

[lambdin1]

04:42 PM on 10/21/2011

Hi Monty! Still trying to educate the uneducated? The only way that these people will wake up is when the water or heat becomes unbearable. This is what is so prevelant throughout the world. It is always happening to someone else. "Never me." By then it is too late! Too many are enscounced in their own small worlds. You'll never be able to do anything to wake them up!

[jimboy71]

04:01 PM on 10/21/2011

Oh hardy. Still only five fans?

So is it your contention that there are never crises, and that all crisis is merely alarmism?

The Titanic will be pulling into port any day now. Mark my words.

[quillerm]

12:28 PM on 10/21/2011

People laugh at Christians that think the world will end in a few years, yet Al Gore's prediction that the Ice Caps will melt by 2013 still has followers. The difference between Christians that predict the Worlds end and Mr. Gore is around 100 million dollars in personal wealth for Mr. Gore. Some scientists believe the Ice Caps will melt any time between 2065 and maybe never. The real date will become clearer as more Research Funding and 'Green' companies make billions in profits. Unfortunately, 'Green' technology is in most cases more of a pollutant than good old gasoline. The 500 million wasted by our Federal government is the Solyandra debacle would have been better spent purchasing several thousand Mercedz Benz automobiles manufactured in Alabama and handing them out in a 'Green' raffle. The highly efficient Mercedez engines have better MPG ratings than the Prius. Add that to the 1.1 billion wasted on two other Solar Company's that have failed to make a product that works and we have over 1.6 billion in wasted government taxpayer revenue. The world won't get greener just because we throw away billions on 'End of the World' scenarios that never materialize.

[kwaut lizard]

02:53 PM on 10/21/2011

Remember that class regarding 'finite resources' ... of course you don't, you were sleeping.

[WESmith]

07:04 PM on 10/21/2011

So were the people that still own gasoline-powered vehicles and drink well water. We were warned in the 1970s and were provided with alternative energy products, but no one was interested.

[Free2BeMe]

03:49 PM on 10/21/2011

What do you bet that insurance companies aren't taking climate chaos seriously? Higher premiums for home insurance will show you just how much they know it's real.
http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/tp/tp061017risk_assessment_clim

"In fact, the industry (home insurance companies) has named climate change its biggest challenge."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/13/idUS238251745220110613

[quillerm]

12:04 PM on 10/21/2011

To give you an idea of the kind of hysterical predictions the global warming crowd have made in recent years, the United Nations in 2005 actually forecast that by the end of the previous decade, there would be 50 million environmental refugees around the world as a result of climate change.

Britain's Guardian reported October 12, 2005:

Rising sea levels, desertification and shrinking freshwater supplies will create up to 50 million environmental refugees by the end of the decade, experts warn today. Janos Bogardi, director of the Institute for Environment and Human Security at the United Nations University in Bonn, said creeping environmental deterioration already displaced up to 10 million people a year, and the situation would get worse.

[Jeremyewilliams]

12:07 PM on 10/21/2011

Please, read the news.

[kwaut lizard]

03:00 PM on 10/21/2011

Over 20 million people were displaced due to climate-related sudden-onset disasters in 2008, displacement linked to slow-onset disasters witnessed more than 26.5 million people reportedly affected by 12 droughts that same year.

Your couch was not one of those places!