U.K. fears disaster in climate change

LONDON Britain warned Monday that failure to act swiftly on global warming will have a cataclysmic effect on the global economy, and said it was stepping up efforts to get other nations involved.

A long-awaited report predicted apocalyptic effects from climate change, including droughts, flooding, famine, skyrocketing malaria rates and the extinction of many animal species. These will happen during the current generation if changes are not made soon, the report said.
It said the costs related to climate change, if it is allowed to continue unmitigated, could devour as much as 20 percent of the world's gross domestic product, or GDP.

"The consequences for our planet are literally disastrous," Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain said in a speech discussing the report, which is one of the most comprehensive attempts yet to predict the economic impact of global warming.

Read more...

"This disaster is not set to happen in some science-fiction future, many years ahead, but in our lifetime," Blair said. "What is more, unless we act now, not some time distant but now, these consequences, disastrous as they are, will be irreversible."