> ''ecological refugees will become a major concern, and whats worse is you may find that people can move to drier ground, but the soils and the natural resources may not support life. africa doesnt have to worry about land, but would you want to live in the sahara?' he said. > unep estimates it would cost the united states at least $100 billion to protect its east coast alone. > shifting climate patterns would bring back 1930s dust bowl conditions to canadian and u.s. wheatlands, while the soviet union could reap bumper crops if it adapts its agriculture in time, according to a study by unep and the international institute for applied systems analysis. > excess carbon dioxide is pouring into the atmosphere because of humanitys use of fossil fuels and burning of rain forests, the study says. the atmosphere is retaining more heat than it radiates, much like a greenhouse. > the most conservative scientific estimate that the earths temperature will rise 1 to 7 degrees in the next 30 years, said brown. > the difference may seem slight, he said, but the planet is only 9 degrees warmer now than during the 8,000-year ice age that ended 10,000 years ago. > brown said if the warming trend continues, ''the question is will we be able to reverse the process in time? we say that within the next 10 years, given the present loads that the atmosphere has to bear, we have an opportunity to start the stabilizing process.' > he said even the most conservative scientists ''already tell us theres nothing we can do now to stop a ... change of about 3 degrees. > 'anything beyond that, and we have to start thinking about the significant rise of the sea levels ... we can expect more ferocious storms, hurricanes, wind shear, dust erosion.'
United States