What could be the human costs of climate change?

It depends on how much action we take to stop it. If allowed to continue unchecked, the potential costs are huge. Rising temperatures will diminish yields of staple food crops such as rice and wheat, creating more hunger and malnutrition in developing countries. Mosquitoes will inhabit more of the planet as it warms, enabling malaria to spread further. Flooding caused by heavier rainfalls or meltwater could contaminate water supplies, damage homes and spread water-borne diseases. Heat waves will continue to kill people (35,000 died in the European heat wave of 2003). The world’s freshwater supply will decrease as snow and glaciers melt. Island states such as Tuvalu and the Maldives are likely to be submerged or become uninhabitable during this century, while low-lying countries (e.g. Bangladesh, the Netherlands) and coastal cities (e.g. New York, Shanghai) could soon be threatened. Desertification is causing pasture to disappear, creating competition over land—this has already been a cause of war (see Darfur). A World Health Organisation study in 2005 established that around 150,000 people die every year from the effects of global warming, a number which could almost double by 2020. In economic terms, it will cost much less to act now to combat climate change than to pay for it later (1% of global GDP compared to 20%, according to the 2006 Stern Review into the Economics of Climate Change).

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