NEWS OF THE WEEK
A WARMING PLANET CLIMATE CHANGE: UN panel warns of catastrophic disruptions if greenhouse gases rise unabated
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N APRIL 6, a United Nations panel outlined broad, eventually catastrophic changes in the planet that will occur if emissions of greenhouse gases are not curbed. As global temperatures continue to rise, species extinctions will increase, water shortages will spread, and droughts and floods will become much more widespread, warned the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its report on impacts.
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Polar bears may go hungry as Arctic sea ice melts.
The areas of the world most vulnerable to the impacts of a warming planet are the Arctic; sub-Saharan Africa; small island states; and the large, highly populated river deltas of Asia, says the report, which was prepared by IPCC's Working Group II. "It is the poorest of the poor people in the world, even the poorest in the most prosperous nations, who are going to be the worst hit and are the most vulnerable, as far as the impacts of climate change are concerned," IPCC Chairman Rajendra K. Pachauri said at a news conference in Brussels.
"At the global level, there is a man-made climate signal coming through on plants, animals, water, and ice," said Martin Parry, cochair of Working Group II. "For the first time, we are no longer arm-waving with models, saying this might happen. When put together, 29,000 data sets provide a picture of the impacts of climate change around the world." Furthermore, Parry said, future impacts can now be estimated more systematically and for a greater range of sectors and regions. As temperatures increase, there will be greater water availability in the areas where it is already moist and widening droughts in the low-latitude, semiarid regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, the American Southwest, and the Middle East, he said. "It is exactly what we don't want." With a small amount of warming, Parry continued, food production will increase at high latitudes and decrease at low latitudes. But if temperatures rise about 3 °C from the 1980-99 average, "y o u g e t a global downturn in agricultural productivity," and 40% of the species around the globe will become extinct, he said. With only a 2 °C temperature rise, millions more people will face risk of flood every year, he warned. The average global temperature has already risen 0.77 °C since 1850, and 0.27 °C from the 1980-99 average. With no significant reductions in emissions, global temperatures are expected to rise 2 °C by the 2050s and 3 °C by the 2070sfromthe 1980-99 average. The 1,572-page report was prepared by more than 200 scientists, and the summary of the report was approved by officials from 120 countries. It will be discussed at the upcoming meeting of the Group of Eight industrial nations in June. There, the European Union is expected to try to convince the U.S. to make stronger efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions. In an April 6 press briefing about the report, James L. Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, insisted that the U.S. is taking action on climate change even though it has not ratified the Kyoto protocol. "We are leading the way with actually dozens of advanced technology partnerships," he said.—BETTE HILEMAN
RESEARCH FUNDING HHMI will support newly selected investigators with $600 million If you've always wanted to vie for a spot as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, now's your chance. HHMI plans to invest at least $600 million in the research of as many as 50 newly selected investigators, who will be drawn from a broad array of disciplines including chemistry, physics, and engineering. "We are looking for scientists who have demonstrated originality and productivity in biomedical research and who show exceptional promise for future
contributions," says Jack E. Dixon, vice president and chief scientific officer at HHMI. The nonprofit medical research organization currently supports about 300 investigators in the U.S. For the first time in a general competition, HHMI is soliciting applications directly from researchers. In previous general competitions, researchers had to be nominated by their institutions. Candidates should have between four and 10 years of experience since being appointed as an
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assistant professor and must be based at one of some 200 eligible U.S. institutions. "The intent is to ensure that the HHMI investigators appointed through this competition will be in strong research environments that are able to provide infrastructure support to the research programs," explains Senior Scientific Officer Josephine P. Briggs. Applications should be filed by 3 PM on June 13. Successful candidates will be named next spring.—SOPHIE ROVNER
