See You in the Handbasket

Climate-change studies project fun future of droughts, floods, illness

The latest issue of the journal Nature has three new studies on the likely impacts of climate disruption. Turns out it's gonna be a cakewalk! Ah, sadly, we kid. Millions who depend on mountain snow and glaciers for their water supplies -- especially in Asia and South America -- are expected to face shortages as rising temperatures turn snowfall into rain and melt snowpack and glaciers faster than normal, according to one study. Another study forecasts dramatic changes in worldwide streamflow patterns, with many regions unprepared to handle the abnormally timed droughts or surpluses. And a third finds that warming trends have likely led to 150,000 deaths and 5 million illnesses every year for the past 30 years, and that climate change is likely to increase infectious disease outbreaks, respiratory illnesses, flooding, and other calamities -- with poorer countries the hardest hit. "Those least able to cope and least responsible for the greenhouse gases that cause global warming are most affected," said University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher Jonathan Patz. "Herein lies an enormous global ethical challenge." And you know how well we handle those ...