IPCC Report forecasts gloomy future

The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) 4th Assessment Report is out.

Grim forecasts from the report include a rise in poverty and spread of infections like diarrheal diseases and malaria.

A greater risk of deaths due to disease and injury caused by heat waves, floods, storms, fires and droughts has also been predicted.

The report states that, “By 2020, between 75 and 250 million people are projected to be exposed to an increase of water stress due to climate change”. The report also warns of a huge rise in sea levels due to melting of ice sheets in Greenland and West Antartica that can cause wide spread flooding of coastal zones.

For the Indian sub continent, glacial melting in the Himalayas is the big threat

The report states that, “freshwater availability in Central, South, East and Southeast Asia particularly in large river basins is projected to decrease due to climate change which, along with population growth and increasing demand arising from higher standards of living, could adversely affect more than a billion people by the 2050s”.

Another dire prediction is a very significant loss of Asia's biodiversity.

Check out the full report at http://www.ipcc.ch/

What must India, Indians and the people of Asia do on a priority basis to minimize the effects of the climate change?

image source: IMSI Master Clips