The magazine of the european research area European Commission Copenhagen, a missed chance?

    www.europeana.eu

www.wdl.org

Mapping the 

impact of global 

warming

The Copenhagen world summit 

on climate change is expected 

to culminate in an agreement 

limiting global warming to 4°C 

(7°F) between now and the year 

2100 (

1

). What would happen 

if this proved to be just a pious 

hope? The consequences are 

all too obvious if you take 

a look at an interactive 

map of the planet featured on 

the British government website 

Act on Copenhagen. 

The map presents the latest 

scientific results on global 

warming. You can use it to study 

a specific geographical zone or 

one of the impacts of climate 

change: agriculture, the Amazon 

forest, the carbon cycle, sea-level 

rise and temperature rises. 

The scenarios are enough to 

make your head spin: 130 million 

flood victims per year; 1 billion 

people with water shortages; 

a 48-centimetre rise in sea level 

(with an estimated 600 million 

people living less than 10 metres 

above present sea level); large 

areas of the Amazon forest lost 

through drought, and more… 

All just alarmist theories? 

The scientists are quick to remind 

us that 35 000 people died as 

a result of the European heat 

wave in 2003.