The world´s climate is fundamental to humanity´s survival. Yet within one human lifetime we are on course to increase world temperatures to such a high level and so rapidly that we may alter our climate and so our world so severely that the future of humankind is now threatened. And so too our children´s future.

An estimated 325 million people each year are already severely affected by climate change. By 2030 the number is expected to more than double to about 660 million people a year as temperatures rise and as environments deteriorate.*62

More intense and more frequent heavy rain events causing worsening flooding, more severe droughts causing famine and malnutrition, more violent hurricanes leaving devastation in their wake and rising acidic oceans will all affect the world´s people.

And those that are the most vulnerable will suffer the most even though they are the least responsible.

• Already over 125 million people every year are affected by floods and flash floods – a six-fold increase since the 1970s.*63


• With a 3° to 4°C increase in the Earth’s average temperature 330 million people could be displaced worldwide due to flooding and sea-level rise – over 70 million in Bangladesh, six million in Lower Egypt and 22 million in Vietnam.*64






• Over 35 million Americans living in coastal communities are now at risk from North Atlantic hurricanes.*65


• By 2080 over 100 million people every year will be at risk from coastal flooding – a ten fold increase from today.*66


• By 2030, almost half of the world’s population will be living in areas of high water-stress due to climate change and unsustainable water use.*67






• One billion people in India, China and the Andes, who depend on meltwater from glaciers or snow-fed rivers for their dry season water supply, could lose this source of water this century as glaciers melt and then disappear completely.*68


• 400 to 600 million more people could go hungry each year later this century with high greenhouse gas emissions.*69


• 300,000 people already die every year due to climate change causing weather-related disasters and environmental deterioration. By 2030 this could rise to almost 500,000 deaths a year.*70


• By 2050 mass international migrations are expected with tens to hundreds of millions of climate change refugees – people fleeing their homelands searching for food, water and shelter or escaping rising oceans. Where will all these people go?*71


• Insured losses from weather-related disasters have grown 29 fold since the 1960´s to US$22 billion pa with economic losses growing 7-fold to US$48 billion pa.*72 By 2050, annual weather-related disaster losses could cost 0.5% to 1% of world GDP – up to US$1 trillion a year at a conservative estimate.*73

It must be remembered that the changes that are occurring to the Earth today have been caused by a relatively small increase in the global average temperature of about 0.8°C.*74

By 2100 the Earth’s average temperature may rise by 1.6° to 6.9°C above 1850-1899´s level. And as temperature rise, impacts will worsen.*75

Our children and the coming generation will grow up in a much changing world. They will witness the impacts of a disrupted climate and see suffering on an unprecedented scale. Once the predicted changes happen it will not be possible to turn the clock back.

What can be done to prevent this?