You know in Sim City when your city wasn't working out that well so you decided to hit with a tornado and a flood and a hurricane, and then also a monster? According to scientists, that's what's about to happen to the earth. For the first time, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has focused not just on global warming but also on climate change's affect on extreme weather phenomena, and their report on the topic is super-scary. Says lead author Maarten van Aalst,
We need to be worried. And our response needs to anticipate disasters and reduce risk before they happen rather than wait until after they happen and clean up afterward. ... Risk has already increased dramatically.
Adds co-author Michael Oppenheimer, "Global warming is increasing the risk of disaster and already makes dealing with several types of disaster, like heat waves, more difficult. The risk will become greater as the future gets hotter." Things we need to be worried about include droughts, floods, and storms. The panel did not comment on the risk of Godzillas, but I figure it's only a matter of time.
Science Panel: Get Ready For Extreme Weather [AP, via SFGate]