Global warming is radically altering weather patterns, ecosystems and food security throughout Latin America, and the problems will only grow worse during the course of this century, says the latest report from the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The impacts—including more frequent and intense storms, water shortages, flooding, drought, disease and species extinction—will be extreme, says the report, released March 31. Yet Latin America is ill-prepared, the IPCC says, asserting environmental considerations are not adequately reflected in public policy in a region still heavily reliant on natural-resource extraction. “Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability” is among the gloomiest such studies by the UN panel. Experts say its Latin America chapter is especially sobering on account of the... [Log in to read more]
