Asia faces living nightmare from climate change

The weather predictions for Asia in 2050 read like a script from a doomsday movie.

Except many climatologists and green groups fear they will come true unless there is a concerted global effort to rein¹ in greenhouse gas emissions².

In the decades to come, Asia -- home to more than half the world's 6.3 billion people -- will lurch³ from one climate extreme to another, with impoverished⁴ farmers battling droughts, floods, disease, food shortages and rising sea levels.

"It's not a pretty picture," said Steve Sawyer, climate policy adviser⁵ with Greenpeace in Amsterdam. Global warming and changes to weather patterns are already occurring and there is enough excess carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to drive climate change for decades to come.

Already, changes are being felt in Asia but worse is likely to come, Sawyer and top climate bodies say, and could lead to mass migration⁶ and widespread humanitarian⁷ crises.

According to predictions, glaciers⁸ will melt faster, some Pacific and Indian Ocean islands will have to evacuate⁹ or build sea defenses, storms will become more intense and insect and water-borne diseases will move into new areas as the world warms.

All this comes on top of rising populations and spiraling demand for food, water and other resources. Experts say environmental degradation¹⁰ such as deforestation and pollution will likely magnify the impacts of climate change.

In what could be a foretaste of the future, Japan was hit by a record 10 typhoons and tropical storms this year, while two-thirds of Bangladesh, parts of Nepal and large areas of northeastern India were flooded, affecting 50 million people, destroying livelihoods¹¹ and making tens of thousands ill.

The year before, a winter cold snap and a summer heat wave killed more than 2,000 people in India.