Climate Change: Getting the Facts Right
A professor at the University of Greenwich is one of the experts who have contributed to the world’s most definitive report on climate change.
Professor John Morton, a specialist on the impact of climate on poor farmers in developing countries, is a lead author for ‘Climate Change 2007’, the UN’s authoritative report that takes six years to write.
“Some of the world’s poorest people will be hardest hit by climate change”, says Professor Morton. “Smallholder and subsistence farmers in the semi-arid tropics – countries like Sudan, Ethiopia and India – can expect lower crop yields and more extreme weather. The risk of hunger grows even with small temperature increases.”
Over 2,500 scientists from 130 countries have been working on the report, which aims to give “a comprehensive and rigorous picture of the global present state of knowledge of climate change”.
Speaking on behalf of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) which produces the report, Carola Traverso Saibante says, “The IPCC is the leading body in the assessment of climate change and this is the most comprehensive report done by anyone. I think you could call it the definitive report.”
Information for editors:
- Climate Change 2007 is the Fourth Assessment Report of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, the IPCC. It is issued in three volumes. Professor Morton contributed to the chapter on “Food, Fibre and Forest Products” in the second volume which is due to be published in full in May. The summaries of the first and second volumes have already been made public.
- The Summary for Policymakers (Volume 2) April 2007, says that in higher latitudes, crop productivity will increase for temperature increases of 1-3 degrees and then decrease if it gets any hotter. But “at lower latitudes, especially seasonally dry and tropical regions, crop productivity is projected to decrease for even small local temperature increases (1-2 degrees celsius), which would increase risk of hunger”. And it goes on, “Increases in the frequency of droughts and floods are projected to affect local crop production negatively, especially in subsistence sectors at low latitudes.”
- John Morton is Professor of Development Anthropology at the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) at the University of Greenwich. NRI is an internationally recognized multi-disciplinary centre for research, consultancy and education for the management of natural and human resources. The Institute's research and consultancy is particularly focused on the management of renewable natural resources in countries with developing and emerging economies.
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