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CLIMATE

America Will be Ravaged by Climate Change, Says World Bank Report

US faces brutal summers, droughts, and food shortages

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by Mary Noble

Senior Editor t

Image: The Atlantic

A new World Bank report provides some alarming new data on where the climate will be in 2100, and it predicts that the United States will be hit disproportionately hard. Here's what the report says is in store for America's future:

1. Lethally hot summers. The world will see a 4 degree celsius temperature rise, but the pain will not be spread evenly. Summer temperature rises of at least 6 degrees will afflict the sub-tropical Mediterranean, north Africa, the Middle East – and the United States. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim called this the "doomsday scenario."

2. More droughts like that of 2012. The above image shows how drought conditions affected 63% of the US, making this the worst drought in 50 years. And we can expect more of the same, climate scientists predict.

3. Lower crop yields and food shortages. "The most severely affected regions in the next 30 to 90 years will likely be in southern Africa, the United States, southern Europe and Southeast Asia, says the report."

Via the World Bank, the Atlantic and the Washington Post.
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Should Americans take climate change warnings more seriously?

Comments (view in Forum)

  • Neo_NtheMatrix
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    They won't expect to deliver the payload of pain until 2100. However, they will collect taxes from you today. Al Gore is up to his usual hijinks.
  • o
    Sonny
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    I just don't understand why its such a problem to prepare for potential disasters? And also why this issue has taken on such a political posture? The scientist (without the politicians of the world) need to simply get together on this, and present the facts to the people. Then the leaders of the world need to act....accordingly, and leave the politics out of this...Why is this such a problem? I suppose if you don't believe in science then that's one thing. But then, if you dismiss these warnings, then you need to come up with the proof, and reasoning thereof...and stop just merely playing politics with this issue.
  • Phreakwars
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    Yeah, it's all lies. I don't care what 99.9% of the entire science community claims, global warming is a hoax... GAWD will save us all.
  • View all 43 replies >
  • jessejaymes
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    Of course, this would be more "leftist propaganda". Why wouldn't it be? Simply calling it leftist propaganda and washing your hands of the whole thing is exactly what a modern day Pontius Pilot would do. Easier than caring about your grand children's future. That might require some effort and working together with the Dem's to solve this problem and we all know only a traitor would budge one inch off of their far right rhetoric. Better to fry and to compromise. Right?
  • MongoAPillager
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    the only "experts" that promote"manmade"clim ate change are Scientists dependent on government grants or some form of government checks
  • martydotcom
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    @MongoAPillager try looking out your window poof! you're an expert - your weather normal? turn on TV ice cap gone polar bears dying, or view glaciers retreating, or Greenland shrinking, or reefs dying. poof! you're an expert and if you think this is normal you've got really good koolaid. wait for the insurance bills for property flood wind,crops. abs Neo's is worried about taxes. ROFLOL
  • View all 17 replies >
  • stepped_in_it
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    This is good news. It will be easier to heat your hot chocolate (if you can find the chocolate and the water....with droughts and food shortage)......lol
  • FFX_VA
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    US made solar panel sales will go up! Oh wait... Chinese made solar panel sales will go up! but that's not good news is it, nm :)
  • Dan_Tien
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    I think that climate change should be taken seriously and steps be taken to minimize the pollution that contributes to it. However, knowledge of pollution and its consequences has been available for as long as I can remember, but efforts to combat it have been insufficient. I don't believe that enough will be done to prevent further damage. Some people seem to think that "leftists" have made up the whole problem. The supposed payoff for doing so eludes me.
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
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    Dan_Tien: "Some people seem to think that "leftists" have made up the whole problem. The supposed payoff for doing so eludes me."

    Tax increases and bigger government.
  • Dan_Tien
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    @Neo_NtheMatrix As if those won't happen anyway. So you would rather ignore any evidence that something must be done to ensure the survival of the human race in order to save on your taxes?
  • Dan_Tien
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    @woodtick57 Was acid rain reduced in the US because of conservation efforts, or because most all of the steel plants and other manufacturing that contributed to it closed down and went overseas? I wonder what the acid rain content is in Beijing China, where on a clear day you can see for a few kilometers?
  • methinks
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    Dan, we had climate change during the Medieval Warming Period, so I guess all that man made pollution from those diesel powered Viking longboats contributed back then, right? Hell, they farmed on Greenland, you know, the big island now covered by a sheet of ice?

    I wouldn't say leftists "made up the whole problem," but more like people who want to profit from doom and gloom...like Al Gore and his carbon credit BS. Remember, these are the same people who said we were headed to another ice age back in the 70's.(Remember those long, cold, snowy winters? I do!)
  • View all 7 replies >
  • Vance1
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    Climate Change?
    Lets see, Today in Arizona in 1885 it was 74.50°F and Today in AZ 2012 73.70°F
    Yep its 1* lower, in 127 yrs.
    It would appear that this so called Climate Change is nothing more than a Liberals wet dream, See Liberals, Democrats, and Socialistic PIGS, always need to have an agenda. They must Over regulate and charge HIGH taxes on Buisness, They have to put people out of a job because of the enviroment, This is how they have been indoctrinated by the Radical Left, Leftists teach that Business Bad, Socialism Good.
    Why hasnt this Chicago Radical Obama done more to get the Keystone pipeline and thousands of jobs? Because folks, He actually desires to have a bad economy.
    Its a leftist goal, More people on Foodstamps, The faster we move to complete and utter socialism.
    With Democrats this is already a packaged deal.
  • o
    Sonny
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    Oh, so as far as you're concerned....if you can't personally see it, then it doesn't exist...So, since you have not actually walked all around the world and came back to the same place that you started from---I suppose that you also believe that the world is flat...and you will fall off of Earth, if you walk too far in one direction...Oh that's good, real good reasoning.
  • Vance1
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    @Sonny

    You leftists are so easily indoctrinated.
    You people, are such corrupted little creatures.
    Still digging into your Saul Alinsky books?
  • u
    Cheenoguy
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    Every month in 2012 has seen a record high average worldwide for that month. September 2012 was the hottest month ever recorded. So your managing to find a day that a desert town so no alteration is insufficient.
    Your fantasy theory of a socialist intentional destruction of the economy fails on every level. I would try to help you see why but it is clear that you lack the intellectual facilities to comprehend.
  • Post Removed by Moderators
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    Cheenoguy
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    @Vance1
    I remember being young. It was nice. Thanks for crediting me as youthful.
    As far as everything else you said goes no hard feelings here. I don't worry about being hated by people who actually don't believe in climate change. Hell most of them think the world started long after we have evidence of civilizations.
  • View all 35 replies >
  • blue_yahoo
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    Anybody ever thing this is just the natural way of things? We are at the end of an Ice Age ....yes Ages are millenia long. The south pole was once tropical and the center of the US a sea. Things change ever so slowly but they change.
  • MongoAPillager
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    i think a lot of it has to do with mans self-importance,we are so powerful we are chnaing the planet,woops,better put it back like we found it
  • MRMacrum
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    And so what? Regardless of the why, we should be preparing ourselves. Instead, many claim it does not exist. Extreme weather is more common on this planet than the comfortable little bubble we have had for the last umpteen thousand years. Politicizing Reality often ends up with a bigger chunk taken out of our butts than facing it.
  • mimi57
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    @MRMacrum How should we prepare? I already have flashlights, batteries , plenty of food in the basement,
    kerosene lamps, matches, firewood, blankets, water , first aid supplies, and guns...do I need more? Maybe a
    generator, thinking about it...
  • View all 18 replies >
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    Buckfan4life2
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    Who the hell cares right now???? With everything going the way it is I would think this is the least of our problems. Hell, Iam just praying we make it till 2016. With all you tree huggers shuting down jobs and Obamas unemployment soon be 11% who will have a job to buy food with anyway. Ah hell thats right we all get free food and a phone.
  • u
    seedtick
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    Scare tactics! The World Bank is in trouble with the bad economy and needs a "scary cause" to stir things up a little. They must be financing ole Al Gore's Carbon Credit scheme.
  • ClaytonWinton
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    HigherEd is a religion now, hating "deniers," casting-out "blasphemers" and "heretics," punishing "non-believers," chanting endless doom-and-gloom, "The END IS NIGH!"

    -- they just want a bigger chunk of the "pie" as job-security for generations more of University grads at taxpayer expense, MANdated into 'canonical' Law.

    I have a different opinion about it. The Earth has been warming for thousands of years. Industrialization and the compassion of feeding the world has grown families, and that's a good thing. Yes, there are 'side-effects,' such as sanitation and higher air-particulates, and yes, I am optimistic we will neither surround ourselves in oceans of raw sewage nor clouds of impenetrably thick dirty-air.

    I can't afford these winter utility bills, so I'm wishing for a bit of Global Warming right now! lol

    HigherEd's "hands off the earth" (except for themselves) approach is radical, religious-extremism, killing economy, hurting country and families. Nobody needs that (unless your credential and job relies on tax-funding).

    So who has the most 'vested-interest' in that? And would not even their most "unbiased" version of "recommendations" be biased? Of course it would. None have ever submitted reports to Legislatures of any country recommending defunding themselves.

    England figured-out ways to cut the early industrial coal smog that was harming London city dwellers, early 20th century. We'll find a way out of this, too.

    As for sea level rise, it's really about erosion, continants errode, every river and every shore, adding more of our land to the bottom of the "glass," raising the surface level. We also have a billion tons of space debris, meteors, etc., adding more water (where water came from to begin with) and more mass to the planet, daily, annually, always have.

    We can't change that. We must adapt ways of life that accomodate it. HigherEd is claiming that with just more money, more, more, more money, they can find a 'solution.' Nonsense. There is no solution to that. Erosion controls have been established since ancient times. We just get better and better at it. How many reports do we need for that? Why? Just for the luxury of spending money to paraphrase? Reword?

    I'm an optimist, we'll find real solutions of ACCOMODATION, instead of HigherEd's endless ROADBLOCKING of all HUMAN DEVELOPMENT at taxpayer expense. Now it's a government "of the HigherEd credential, by the HigherEd credential," instead of "by the people FOR THE PEOPLE."

    But we can fix that too. Stop the doom-n-gloom nonsense. Enjoy life, don't let HigherEd's "prophets" teach you to HATE HUMANITY.

    Kind Regards, always,
    Clayton Winton
  • DARSB
    !
    I'll flatly predict none of the climate change deniers here will use any thing resembling science or math to support their claims.

    However, I also expect numerous repetitions of Fox News talking points, Heartland Institute misinformation and quotes from the famous scientist Sen Jim Inhofe (R - OK).
  • u
    RobertJHarsh
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    The climate change supporters have nothing to back their claim either. Literally neither side can prove or deny anything is happening. BUT...I wish it could be proven (or not) because the only solution provided to solve this "problem" is TAXES, FINES, and targeting businesses and industries whom the pro-climate changers claim are causing the problem. And I am not even mentioning the over-population idiots, which is a whole other issue and that one is a clear fraud. The math proves that one.
  • u
    RobertJHarsh
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    @DARSB I actually did not prove your point. What I said was neither side can produce data to support their argument since such data does not exist. It is like proving god is real or not...it's not happening.
  • twinertia
    !
    You'll never get the world on board for any effort serious enough to stem the problem, so sporadic technological advances will have to suffice for now. Gonna be rough sledding in spots! I've been screaming for widespread changes in agriculture for years (industrial greenhouses and hydroponics, people!), so that's where I'd start first.
  • u
    MaxPain
    !
    How can that be the GOP ...the GOP has clearly stated that is all Bull.And we all know that if the GOP says so it will be so since they know all and do noting at all.
  • PNWest
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    It is amazing to me that those on the right will believe that a poorly Photoshopped fake birth certificate posted on the internet by an anonymous jokester is credible but think that the evidence of global warming acquired by the many scientists that work in the field is somehow not trustworthy. Is global warming real? Probably. The evidence points that way. Is it known as a certainty - no. Common sense dictates that we take it seriously. Of course commonsense and today's conservatism don't coexist peacefully.
  • u
    Kellso
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    YESSSSSSSSSSSSSss and should have done so wayyyyyyyyyyyy back when it was first warned by GORE and those scientists. Isnt it a shame that all the BRAINACS didnt listen!!!!!!!!!!
  • u
    Kellso
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    @mimi57 You know before you criticize, why dont you just watch the film they made. It is ALL coming true Just like they said it would. I saw the signs back then and why didnt the other multitudes? Apparently you took a political view of it and didnt watch it. GO WATCH WHAT IT SAYS then come on here and criticize my comment.
  • mimi57
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    @Kellso I didn't criticize your comment...I truly thought you were joking.. Sorry. I have no respect or regard for Al Gore. Wish you well.
  • u
    Kellso
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    @mimi57 I could care less if he did or didnt run for office, do yoruself a favor and find his film and watch it,,,,,,,,,,,,, if you arent amazed at what he told not only the USA but other countries, then I will eat a horses hat.
  • FFX_VA
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    @mimi57 I've never seen someone use the terms "Al Gore" and "Amazing" in the same sentence, tells you all you need to know. Oooh, NatGeo's Doomsday Preppers is on TV, gtg :)
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