Climate change version 2

First, the scientific community that studies climate change is quietly panic-stricken, because things are moving much faster than they expected. Greenhouse gas emissions are going up faster than 1 both from industrialising countries in Asia and from melting permafrost in Siberia and Canada. The Arctic Sea ice is melting so fast that the whole ocean may be ice-free in late summer in five years' time. Most climate scientists now see last year's report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, whose forecasts are used by most governments for planning purposes, as a 2 historical document.

Second, the biggest early impact of global warming will be on the food supply, both locally and globally. When the global average temperature hits one and a half degrees hotter - and it will, the carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere 3 us to that much warming - some countries will no longer be able to feed their people. Others, further from the equator, will still have enough food for themselves, but none to 4.