ABSTRACT

Climate change (CC) is happening (see Below’s chapter herein). Global temperatures increased by 0.85 degrees Celsius during the 20th century, and are projected to rise another two degrees, and potentially five degrees, by 2100 (IPCC 2014). The last 30 year period was the warmest in the last 1400 years, and 2014, 2015 and 2016 broke global temperature records three years in a row (IPCC 2014; Gillis 2017). Temperature is only one of the phenomena that will be affected as precipitation, humidity, soil moisture, atmospheric circulation patterns, storms, snow and ice cover and ocean currents are expected to change dramatically. Declines in food production, water scarcity, human health epidemics, increases in the intensity and frequency of natural disasters, sea level rise and coastal inundation will undermine the ability of people to sustain their livelihoods, intensify poverty, increase migration, and weaken the capacity of states to provide basic services to their citizens (IPCC 2014). The effects of CC could even exacerbate social instability and increase the risk of armed conflict (Barnett and Adger 2007)