Oh, and this is the weakened report???
"The authors lost," one scientist told journalists. "A lot of authors are not going to engage in the IPCC [the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] process any more. I have had it with them." Scientists walked out of the talks at one stage and several lodged protests.
The weakened report says that
- Up to 30% of species studied face "an increased risk of extinction_" if temperatures climb by 1.5-2.5c. (If the temperature rise is >4c, they up the ante to "significant extenctions around the globe")
- By 2050, wet areas will get 10-40% wetter. Dry and drought affected areas will get 10-30% drier.
- Increased damage from flooding and erosion (made more fun by people settling along the coasts.)
Hmm. I wonder what the uncensored draft says, or if it's just 450 pages of OH MY GOD WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! RUN FOR THE POLES! RUN FOR THE POLES! ?
The thing is that you know that the uncensored draft copies are going to leak out into general circulation, so what's the point of chicken-littling the thing? Holding your breath until you turn blue might be a popular threat in the under 10 crowd, but it never works, and it's certainly not going to work while the world is hopping into a handbasket and heading for the express elevator to points down.
Perhaps they're trying to give the climate-change denialists a chance to change their increasingly stupid sounding "THERE'S NO GLOBAL WARMING!!!!! (holds breath)" into a creationist-style "G-d hates us for allowing evolution to be taught, so we're all going to die and it's the environmentalists fault" pretend-excuse.