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NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
  • Reading Radar

    Climate Change’s Impact on Human Development

    December 13, 2012 By Carolyn Lamere

    One of the greatest challenges in addressing climate change is the uncertainty of outcomes. The world is warming and greenhouse gases are accumulating at an unprecedented rate – what does that mean for the future of human development? In Barry B. Hughes, Mohammod T. Irfan, Jonathan D. Moyer, Dale S. Rothman, and José R. Solórzano’s paper, “Exploring Future Impacts of Environmental Constraints on Human Development,” they describe three possible futures for the world (a base line scenario, an environmental challenge scenario, and an environmental disaster scenario) and their potential impact on the indicators of the Human Development Index (HDI). The environmental disaster projection features a flat-lining HDI starting around 2015, with global life expectancy at birth seven years shorter than the baseline in 2060. The report also notes that the future of the planet will be drastically different if the world population peaks “well before 2100,” as is the case in the base line scenario, or continues to grow, as it does in the other scenarios.

    Continuing the theme of looking at climate and development together, Benjamin Jones and Benjamin Olken consider the impact of climate on trade in their paper “Climate Shocks and Exports,” appearing in American Economic Review. Jones and Olken examine countries’ exports of certain products and the weather in a given year. They find that “higher temperatures in poor countries lead to large, negative impacts on the growth of their exports,” both of agricultural and manufacturing products. This result only holds true of poor countries, however; wealthier states are more insulated than developing countries and have the resources to adapt to a changing climate. The authors note that this finding aligns with other research declaring that poor countries will experience the brunt of the negative impacts of climate change, but that wealthy countries may be indirectly affected as their imports from developing countries decrease – and also lends credence to closer integration between climate adaptation and aid.

    Sources: American Economic Review, Sustainability, UNDP, World Bank.

    Topics: climate change, development, economics, environment, poverty, Reading Radar
    • http://www.facebook.com/johnpaily1 John Paily

      What is happening to Earth?

      Behind Earth and its climate change is a Principle and Design. Earth has a
      parallel world design that helps it sustain the energy to matter ratio and thus
      heat. This maintenance is crucial to sustenance of life on the planet. Our
      reckless release of heat and our intrusion into the night cycle has
      unilaterally and exponentially pushing the system to critical limit. Heat we
      know creates disorder and breaks down all system. Earth and its outer core
      [environment] and inner core are shearing. It can virtually break up earth
      system. We are reaching the peak of the disorder. Non Linear Science tells us
      that as the system reaches the critical state it goes into uncertainty and then
      collapses to New order. The world is edging to collapse and go onto New Order.
      This is inevitable. Earth is stressing us to evolve to Know Truth and gain the
      Knowledge to live in harmony with her. The world can avoid great disasters and
      step into Golden age, if it awakens to the Principle and Design and her
      functioning to maintain the heat and take quick steps to alleviate the stress
      on her. Knowledge saves- I speak from Life Time research done with His Grace as
      freelance researcher selflessly. This simple truth needs to be taken to the
      world for it to survive. As a small farmer I have failed to catch the attention
      of the world in spite of decades of struggle – I appeal in all humbleness to
      all who reads this do their bit to keep it open to the world. Please help
      alleviate human suffering and awaken to lead it to Golden Age

      http://www.scribd.com/doc/114273537/Climate-Change-and-Its-Relation-to-Energy

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