Global warming to hit world’s poor, threaten major species extinction

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Climate change is set to inflict damage in every continent, hitting poor countries hardest and threatening nearly a third of the world’s species with extinction, UN experts warned Friday.

Global warming will affect much of life on Earth this century, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in a landmark report whose drafting was marked by an angry row.


Damage to Earth’s weather systems from greenhouse gases will change rainfall patterns, punch up the power of storms and boost the risk of drought, flooding and stress on water supplies, the IPCC said.

This will have consequences that, according to the level of carbon pollution that stokes global warming, will be adverse or, in some scenarios, even catastrophic.

AFP