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Poor Outcome

-- Adam -- 02/05/2007

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon suggested in a speech today that the world's poor will  suffer the most harm from global warming, as quoted by Reuters. "Experts say Africa is the lowest emitter of the greenhouse gases blamed for rising temperatures, but due to its poverty, under-development and geography, has the most to lose under dire predictions of wrenching change in weather patterns," the story notes. Tribal island nations face losing almost everything as the ocean laps higher on their shores. Shrinking glaciers in the Himalayas spell disaster for already marginal cotton farmers in Central Asia. Heavier, concentrated precipitation will spur greater levels of flooding and mudslides in developing regions of Asia and Latin America. These human impacts, in additional to the problem of climate refugees I noted a few days ago, mean that global warming is also a humanitarian issue that the world must grapple with morally.