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| Humans facing huge population cull if global temperatures rise 4C in next 100 years By staff writers MX February 27, 2009 03:18pm Survival ... Experts say that humans won't be able to handle the heat if temperatures rise a predicted 4C / AFP * Conservative prediction of 4C rise * Some fear it could happen by 2050 ALLIGATORS bask off the English coast, the Sahara desert stretches into Europe and 10 per cent of humans are left. Science fiction? No, this is the doomsday prediction if global temperatures make a predicted rise of 4C in the next 100 years. Some fear it could happen by 2050. A report in 2007 by the conservative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted a rise of between 2C and 6.4C this century. Climate experts told New Scientist they were optimistic that humans would survive but would have to adapt. Vast numbers would have to migrate away from the equator and towards the poles. National borders would have to be knocked down and humans would become mostly vegetarian with most animals being eaten to extinction. Fish numbers would drop dramatically as acid levels rose in oceans. People would live in high-rise cities to preserve fertile lands for food, and scientists suggest energy could be supplied by a giant solar belt running across North Africa, the Middle East and the southern US. The number of humans could drop to a billion or fewer. "Humans are in a pretty difficult position and I don't think they are clever enough to handle what's ahead. I think they'll survive as a species all right, but the cull during this century is going to be huge," NASA scientist James Lovelock said. "The number remaining at the end of the century will probably be a billion or less." Click here for the full New Scientist report. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25114...5009760,00.html |