How might abrupt climate change affect people?
While the scenarios depicted in the Day After Tomorrow and the Pentagon report are extreme, changes in climate, including possible abrupt climate changes, will have serious consequences for people’s lives and livelihoods. As Earth warms, higher temperatures and more common extreme heat conditions will affect human health, energy demand, water supply and demand, and agriculture. Rising sea levels will impact coastal communities as flooding happens more often and damage from coastal storms becomes more severe. Some regions will become much drier, while others will become much wetter, affecting agriculture, water supply, and the spread of diseases. Many of these impacts will be most severe in developing countries, where scarce resources and limited technological capacity will limit options for coping with the consequences of climate change.
