The Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC)
says global warming is not as bad as many believe.
It released a 1,062-page report Monday - Climate Change Reconsidered
II: Biological Impacts- that says
the threats of famine are overblown.
Food production will increase in many areas,
the report says.
Carbon dioxide, targeted as a greenhouse gas,
is “a
non-toxic, non-irritating, and natural component of the atmosphere,” the report
says.
“Long-term carbon dioxide enrichment studies confirm the findings of
shorter-term experiments, demonstrating numerous growth-enhancing,
water-conserving, and stress-alleviating effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 on
plants growing in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems,” the panel says in a
news release about the report.
“There is little or no risk of
increasing food insecurity due to global warming or rising atmospheric CO2
levels.
“Farmers and others who depend on rural livelihoods for income are
benefitting from rising agricultural productivity around the world, including
in parts of Asia and Africa where the need for increased food supplies is most
critical.
“Rising temperatures and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels play a key
role in the realization of such benefits,” the news release says.
Nor is there a huge threat to aquatic life, the panel says, because they
have shown “considerable tolerance to temperatures and carbon dioxide levels
predicted for the next several centuries.”
Nor will more people die as the globe warms, the panel says.
‘More lives are saved by global warming via the amelioration of
cold-related deaths than are lost due to excessive heat.
“Global warming will have a negligible influence on human morbidity
(deaths) and the spread of infectious diseases,” it says.
The panel says its report is backed by “thousands of citations to
peer-reviewed scientific literature.”
In 2008, Lawrence Solomon, a Canadian environmentalist, wrote a book,
The Deniers, that said much the same things as this report.
He also cited a wide range of leading scientists in debunking critics
who say people are to blame for global warming.
Solomon did not, however, deny that there is global warming. He cited
many other factors beyond human control that are responsible.
