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Scientists say Asia faces disaster from soaring temperatures if climate change goes unchecked

BANGKOK/MANILA – Climate change will bring soaring temperatures, more intense storms, erratic rainfall, plummeting crop yields and a collapse of coral reefs to the Asia-Pacific region unless countries fully implement their commitments under the Paris climate pact, scientists said Friday, calling the challenges ”unprecedented."

The region's future growth and security — as well as the welfare of hundreds of millions of people — are at stake, said a new report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

”Countries in Asia and the Pacific are at the highest risk of plummeting into deeper poverty — and disaster — if (climate change) mitigation and adaptation efforts are not quickly and strongly implemented," said Bambang Susantono, ADB vice president for sustainable development.

Early and aggressive measures are needed to achieve that goal, the report said. If the world continues to emit planet-warming greenhouse gases as now, global mean temperature will increase by over 4 degrees by the end of the century, with parts of Asia-Pacific seeing a rise of 6 degrees, it added.

Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwestern China could experience even hotter climates, with temperatures rising by as much as 8 degrees, it added.

The Asia-Pacific region is home to two-thirds of the world's population and nine out of 15 countries listed as most vulnerable to natural hazards globally.

Millions of people in South Asia are already affected by rising temperatures, and despite impressive economic growth, United Nations' figures show one in 10 Asians is still living in extreme poverty.

 

[Kurdel]

We are on the edge of oblivion, waiting for a miracle that will never come.

 

[Any Questions]

It's going to be nasty 100 years from now

 

[TheLostBigBoss]

Yes, as the quoted points in the OP states, if we literally don't do anything and emissions grow for another 50 years, we will be in deep shit.

News at 11

 

[TheOfficeMut]

I just made a thread asking for advice on traveling and vacationing alone around the world. I suppose the world's climate changing for the worse and eradicating regions and ecosystems is as good a reason as any to just start traveling solo ASAP.

 

[Epsilon-delta]

We are on the edge of oblivion, waiting for a miracle that will never come.

We're going to engineer our way of this.

 

[Sulik2]

We're going to engineer our way of this.

We needed to engineer our way out of this 25 - 30 years ago, its too late now. Climate change is going to hit the fan within our lifetimes and human civilization as we know isn't going to survive.

 

[Chmpocalypse]

Broken link

 

[Epsilon-delta]

We needed to engineer our way out of this 25 - 30 years ago, its too late now. Climate change is going to hit the fan within our lifetimes and human civilization as we know isn't going to survive.

It looks that way if we don't do anything at all.

But we are though.

 

[Thelonelykoopa]

We are on the edge of oblivion, waiting for a miracle that will never come.

Standing on the edge of the crater
Like the prophets once said
And the ashes are all cold now
No more bullets and the embers are dead
Whispers in the air tell the tales
Of the brothers gone
Desolation, devastation
What a mess we made, when it all went wrong

 

[Kurdel]

We needed to engineer our way out of this 25 - 30 years ago, its too late now. Climate change is going to hit the fan within our lifetimes and human civilization as we know isn't going to survive.

There is 0 hyperbole in this post, we are enjoying the end of our golden age as we speak.

 

[TheLostBigBoss]

There is 0 hyperbole in this post, we are enjoying the end of our golden age as we speak.

There is 100% hyperbole in that post.

We will deal with the consequences of our inaction as we are now and in the near and distant future.

What exactly the severity of those consequences are have yet to be set in stone because we still have time to mitigate the extreme dangers and threats we face.

This entire article is about what happens if we literally do nothing for the rest of the century and ignore tech advances and government policy. As is nearly every article/study that talks about climate change, it's always the worst case/emission trends as of now (even though our emissions have been flat for three years and we're not even on the upward trend of the worst case anymore)

 

[Xe4]

The OP's link is broken.
Correct link: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/20...g-temperatures-climate-change-goes-unchecked/

Also, we're going to face all these things even if we don't meet climate reduction goals. The difference is if we continue to emit, those things will be significantly worse, making our jobs that much more difficult. That's what climate change is about, a continual worsening of conditions that we must all deal with, impacting the poor and developing countries the most. Hopefully the reduction in emissions currently happening will be enough to mitigate a lot of the warming, but we're going to have to adapt quite a bit, and that's going to cost a lot of money and a lot of people are going to be displaced who are poorer or not important enough.

So it's vital that as much emissions reductions take place as possible. It's not the economically sensible thing to do right now, but it absolutely is in the long term. The rest of it is going to come down to our ability to innovate and adapt. We'll all see how well that turns out.

Edit: Also, this is the report that is being talked about, for anyone interested: https://www.adb.org/publications/region-at-risk-climate-change

 

[Kurdel]

There is 100% hyperbole in that post.

We will deal with the consequences of our inaction as we are now and in the near and distant future.

What exactly the severity of those consequences are have yet to be set in stone because we still have time to mitigate the extreme dangers and threats we face.

Our society could barely keep it’s cool woth a few million Syrians, tens and hundreds of millions of climate refugees will destabilize the world beyond recognition.

Hoping for human ingenuity to save the day when we lose entire cities to the rising tides is foolish.

We don’t have the time or the money. This needs to be a moon landing/manhattan project level of commitment. This needs a war effort and global mobilization.

 

[IdreamofHIME]

The Thai Junta warned Bangkok could be mostly flooded in around quarter of a century due to rising water levels.
Its been fucking mess these last few monsoon seasons, so it will Apocalyptic by then.

 

[Regulus Tera]

Time for everyone to migrate North

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

WELL. FUCK.

 

[TheLostBigBoss]

Our society could barely keep it's cool woth a few million Syrians, tens and hundreds of millions of climate refugees will destabilize the world beyond recognition.

Hoping for human ingenuity to save the day when we lose entire cities to the rising tides is foolish.

We don't have the time or the money. This needs to be a moon landing/manhattan project level of commitment. This needs a war effort and global mobilization.

Really? You're telling me Europe was on the brink of collapse because of the Syrian (where a large number of refugees weren't even from Syria) refugee crisis?

We absolutely have the time, and we have the money. Cities that have the geography won't sink into the ocean. You're not going to see London or New York get taken away into the sea.

Now it's gonna cost a shit load of money, but that always been the point of this debate in terms of the cost of inaction being far greater than the cost of prevention

 

[TheLostBigBoss]

The Thai Junta warned Bangkok could be mostly flooded in around quarter of a century due to rising water levels.
Its been fucking mess these last few monsoon seasons, so it will Apocalyptic by then.

Bangkok is also literally sinking iirc, so it's two fold of rising sea levels and a sinking city.

 

[Laieon]

Really? You're telling me Europe was on the brink of collapse because of the Syrian (where a large number of refugees weren't even from Syria) integration crisis?

We absolutely have the time, and we have the money. Cities that have the geography won't sink into the ocean. You're not going to see London or New York get taken away into the sea.

Now it's gonna cost a shit load of money, but that always been the point of this debate in terms of the cost of inaction being far greater than the cost of prevention

It's nice to see optimism on here for once. I'm with you.

 

[Xe4]

Really? You're telling me Europe was on the brink of collapse because of the Syrian (where a large number of refugees weren't even from Syria) integration crisis?

We absolutely have the time, and we have the money. Cities that have the geography won't sink into the ocean. You're not going to see London or New York get taken away into the sea.

Now it's gonna cost a shit load of money, but that always been the point of this debate in terms of the cost of inaction being far greater than the cost of prevention

Yep. That and developing countries/poorer people being hit really hard. Climate change has never been about some game changing event, but a gradual worsening of conditions that will either require abandoning of assets or huge amounts of expenditure to adapt to.
No climate change proponents are saying that it's going to be the end of the world or human society, just make our lives that much more difficult and cause a lot of pain and suffering along the way. However, we can adapt to and mitigate a lot of the damage. Already are to, in fact.

 

[nintendoman58]

Everyone loves to rush to these threads and post the exact same rhetoric, acting like there's absolutely no efforts anywhere on this.

Where are some of you in threads showing the accomplishments China is making towards reducing emissions, hm?

Really? You're telling me Europe was on the brink of collapse because of the Syrian (where a large number of refugees weren't even from Syria) integration crisis?

We absolutely have the time, and we have the money. Cities that have the geography won't sink into the ocean. You're not going to see London or New York get taken away into the sea.

Now it's gonna cost a shit load of money, but that always been the point of this debate in terms of the cost of inaction being far greater than the cost of prevention

This.

 

[Mrbob]

I wish I had access to a chart I can't find right now but it was tracking livable temperatures in Asian regions and it was a scary chart. Goes along with this article with its data stating there are a bunch of cities that are going to have unlivable temperatures in about 50 years. It's going to be above the safety line where it is literally too warm to be outside. Maybe this is how the underground colonies start.

 

[Kurdel]

Really? You're telling me Europe was on the brink of collapse because of the Syrian (where a large number of refugees weren't even from Syria) integration crisis?

We absolutely have the time, and we have the money. Cities that have the geography won't sink into the ocean. You're not going to see London or New York get taken away into the sea.

Now it's gonna cost a shit load of money, but that always been the point of this debate in terms of the cost of inaction being far greater than the cost of prevention

I said barely kept it’s cool, if it was literally ten times bigger, how do you think the right will react?

And no, of course our western cities can and will survive. The issue is the global order, and the hundreds of millions of poor people who live in coastal territories that will dissapear.

 

[TheLostBigBoss]

I said barely kept it’s cool, if it was literally ten times bigger, how do you think the right will react?

And no, of course our western cities can and will survive. The issue is the global order, and the hundreds of millions of poor people who live in coastal territories that will dissapear.

Yes, I agree with you.

However, like I said, we absolutely have time to prevent the situation described in this article

 

[Xe4]

Also, this bit:

Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwestern China could experience even hotter climates, with temperatures rising by as much as 8 degrees, it added.

is a tad bit misleading.

Reading the report, what's being discussed is temperature anomalies in June, July, and August for the stronger of the two possible scenarios by 2100. That is opposed to average temperature rise which would likely be ~4-5 K in the completely unmitigated scenario.

 

[cornerman]

Given the countries and people that may be directly and initially affected by climate change. I wonder if some of these officials and businessmen find it hard to care for that alone. Tragedy happens across the globe everyday, why should they change their business for this particular one. When I hear about these poor countries that will be swallowed up, I can't help but think how little these guys care about them to begin with. The problem is that the folks in charge don't feel the pain. They are insolated by their power and wealth. The more people feel pain, the greater our response will be.

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

Given the countries and people that may be directly and initially affected by climate change. I wonder if some of these officials and businessmen find it hard to care for that alone. Tragedy happens across the globe everyday, why should they change their business for this particular one. When I hear about these poor countries that will be swallowed up, I can't help but think how little these guys care about them to begin with. The problem is that the folks in charge don't feel the pain. They are insolated by their power and wealth. The more people feel pain, the greater our response will be.

....Because losing Asia means losing a huge market they could expand their business into.

Like what? Do you think all Asian countries are rural fishing villages or something?

 

[_Ryo_]

It's awful. Something needs to be done, and fast. Though, it is likely that it may already be too late.