Impacts of Global Warming Report

Here’s an article about a report the US government just released on the impacts of global warming on the US.

http://www.truthout.org/061709O#comment-60496

You can find the full report and a summary here:

http://www.globalchange.gov/publications/reports/scientific-assessments/us-impacts

I’ve only begun to read the full report, but I’m almost sure it will not convey the real impacts on our lives. For example, it will probably mention that droughts will be more common in the Southwest, and hopefully it will go a step further and say something about reduced food output and water rationing. But will they talk about the worldwide famine that will occur because of the mega-droughts in the US, Australia, and other places, the shifting monsoon patterns, and because the glaciers that supply most of India and China will melt? I would be very surprised. Will they talk about the cannibalism that will occur when there is nothing else left to eat? That is the kind of thing we need to get through to people because otherwise they won’t take action (as we have seen).

In fact, I just searched the full report for “famine”, “starvation”, and “starve”, and there were no matches. There were matches for “food”, though. Here are the examples that had to do with human food:

"In an increasingly interdependent world, U.S. vulnerability to climate change is linked to the fates of other nations. For example, conflicts or mass migrations of people resulting from food scarcity and other resource limits, health impacts, or environmental stresses in other parts of the world could threaten U.S. national security. It is thus difficult to fully evaluate the impacts of climate change on the United States without considering the consequences of climate change elsewhere. However, such analysis is beyond the scope of this report."

"Climate change will increase productivity in certain crops and regions and reduce productivity in others (see for example Midwest and Great Plains regions)."

"However, under higher heat-trapping gas emissions scenarios, the projected climate changes are likely to increasingly challenge U.S. capacity to as efficiently produce food, feed, fuel,and livestock products."

"Climate change will affect society through impacts on the necessities and comforts of life: water, energy, housing, transportation, food, natural ecosystems, and health."

The way they put things is pretty dry and abstract, and it does not convey the extent of the changes. For example, how much will crop yields increase and decrease and which crops? Since the places where the vast majority of our food is produced will turn into desert or endure mega-droughts, I’m fairly certain that total food production will go down quite a bit relatively early and go down drastically later, but they don’t even give the impression that it will go down. This report, like others I’ve seen, also doesn’t say how the changes will actually affect people. There is a big difference between food prices going up a little and mass starvation, but if they only say there will be “impacts” or “changes” it doesn’t mean much, especially to most people. If you notice, the worst thing they say about food in our country is that efficiency will be challenged. They do briefly mention the possibility of food scarcity in other countries and say that might affect our "security". But what about how the cost of food goes up everywhere when it is scarce? And when our ability to produce our own food is severely curtailed, where will we get enough food when there is also a food scarcity in other countries? The obvious answer is we won't, and some of us will go hungry, even starve.

It’s great that the information is not being completely censored any more. But wording global warming impacts in a way that makes them seem pretty harmless is still a form of censorship.

Addendum 9/13/2009: After reading a lot more of the report, I have to admit that in many ways it is an excellent report. I really learned a lot. I still have issues with the way threats are downplayed, but it would probably have a fairly big impact on anyone who read the report. Unfortunately, judging by the climate bill the House passed, most of them didn’t bother to read it. That is disgraceful.