UN REPORT WARNS OF IMPENDING DROUGHT IN LATIN AMERICA

[Snowy Owl]

UN REPORT WARNS OF IMPENDING DROUGHT IN LATIN AMERICA
http://www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes/index.php?nav=story&story_id=13240&topic_id=15​

The fourth volume of a report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that Latin America could face in drought in less than 20 years.

The region will be the first affected by water scarcity and will serve as a preview for the rest of the world.

The report, using information from thousands of scientists across the world, is the last in a series of four reports on climate change and will be the basis for future UN policies related to the changing state of the world.

The final document will be released in Belgium this April.

As well as drought, the report warns of epidemics of tropical diseases such as dengue fever, yellow fever and malaria.

?Higher temperatures will result in more rainfall in some regions,? said Dr Miriam Lorca, expert in Parasitology from Santiago?s Universidad de Chile.
?This will mean more humidity which is a comfortable environment for mosquitoes which can carry tropical diseases.?

According to Lorca, these kinds of diseases are already on the rise, having increased significantly since the 1970?s.

Today, there are epidemics of dengue fever in Peru, Argentina and Boliva. Chile experienced its own dengue scare when several inhabitants of Easter Island, an outpost in the Pacific Ocean (ST Feb. 12.)

Mainland Chile has so far steered clear of such diseases due in part to strict border controls, but also due to Chile?s geographical isolation caused by the hostile desert in the north and the Andes mountain range running the length of the country along its border with Argentina. Lorca warned that this pleasant isolation could soon change.

?As temperature and therefore rainfall rises, Chile too will be susceptible to these diseases,? she said.

Between 2070 and 2100 ? by which time average temperature will have risen by 4 degrees Celcius (roughly 8 degrees Fahrenheit) ? Chile can expect drastic changes throughout the country.

In the far north, the Norte Grande, rainfall will increase in spring and summer.

At present the Chile?s northern desert is the driest place on earth, with some areas receiving rainfall every 200 years.

Just south of here, the Norte Chico (Regions III and IV) can expect heavy rainfall during the winter season. The center of the country ? famed for its lush, green, wine-producing valleys ? will suffer a decrease in rainfall while the damp, temperate forests of the far south will receive just 50 percent of the rainfall they enjoy today.

According to the UN report, calm ? and profit ? will come before the proverbial storm - or, as the case may be, drought.

In the next two years, Latin America can look forward to bumper crop yields, especially of staple foods such as soya beans and rice.

Scientists warn, however, that this brief period of abundance will precede a world-wide famine.

SOURCE: LA TERCERA
By Beatrice Karol Burks