Latest global warming report urges world to begin adapting

Global warming is having a measurable effect on Earth's climate, including agriculture, freshwater resources, and plants and animals on both sea and land. These changes are expected to intensify as temperatures continue to rise.

Those are among the conclusions of a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN-sponsored group of scientists. A summary of their findings released April 6 outlines climate changes and how researchers expect them to play out as warming continues. Their impact on society, the IPCC report says, will vary depending on the amount of actual temperature increase that occurs and humanity's capacity or ability to adapt to the changes.

"Not all of these effects are negative," notes Sharon Hayes, an official with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, who headed the US delegation to the week-long meeting in Brussels where scientists and political delegations hammered out the summary's final wording. At least during the early part of the century, for example, crop yields in wetter parts of the mid- and high latitudes, including regions of Russia, Canada, and the US, are expected to rise.

But the report also makes clear that as temperatures rise, negative effects increase, Dr. Hayes adds. And the poorest countries, which contribute the least to global warming, are expected to face the biggest challenges in coping with it.

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