The Globe and Mail reports today that, “New research (from the HSBC Climate Change Centre of Excellence) highlights the devastating financial impact of failing to stop climate change. Lower agricultural yields, less water and increased health-care needs are among the costly results…”
In terms of water availability, the article notes:
CANADA
– Water availability to decline by 8 per cent per capita by 2020
UNITED KINGDOM
– Water availability per capita to decline 4 per cent
INDIA
– Water availability to decrease as much as 15 per cent per capita by 2020
CHINA
– Already scarce water availability to decline by 8 per cent per capita by 2020
UNITED STATES
– Water availability to fall 10 per cent per capita
BRAZIL
– Per capita water availability to decrease by 29 per cent
AFRICA
– in a front-page article today on the impacts of climate change, the Globe and Mail also reports that, “Studies suggest an additional 250 million Africans will be affected by water scarcity by 2025.”
THE WORLD
In March 2009, the United Nations World Water Development Report predicted “that by 2030, nearly half of the world’s population will be living in areas of high water stress.”
Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute has stated that 166 million people lived in areas lacking sufficient water for basic needs in 1995. By 2050, that number could rise to 1.7 billion.
IN COPENHAGEN
The Council of Canadians, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, and the Indigenous Environmental Network assert that ‘climate justice is water justice’. That was our message at a recent rally on Parliament Hill. We will join other water justice activists in Copenhagen to demand that water issues be a key element in the climate talks.
The Globe and Mail article is at http://theglobeandmail.com/news/world/the-cost-of-inaction/article1393649/?.
