'Mega droughts and extreme floods': World Met Office mocks up 2050 weather report according to climate change predictions

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'Mega droughts and extreme floods': World Met Office mocks up 2050 weather report according to climate change predictions

Posted by sciencetech-blog on Monday, September 1, 2014 Label:

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What will weather reports be like in 2050? Rather dramatic and unnerving if climate change gets out of hand, researchers have claimed.

In a series of videos the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) will reveal how the effects of global warming could affect our planet in the future.

The fictional weather reports describe how droughts, floods and heat waves could cause problems in the next 30 years.

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The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), headquartered in Geneva, is releasing videos that predict what weather reports will be like in 2050 (screenshot shown). These are based on what happens if climate change is allowed to continue

According to the researchers, if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, the average temperature of Earth's atmosphere could rise more than 4°C (7.2°F) by the end of the 21st century.

COULD EATING LESS MEAT AND DAIRY MITIGATE CLIMATE CHANGE?

A report released earlier this year came to similar conclusions, that emissions from agriculture threaten to keep increasing as global meat and dairy consumption increases.

If agricultural emissions are not addressed, nitrous oxide from fields and methane from livestock may double by 2070. This alone would make meeting the climate target essentially impossible.

'We have shown that reducing meat and dairy consumption is key to bringing agricultural climate pollution down to safe levels,' said Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.

'Broad dietary change can take a long time. We should already be thinking about how we can make our food more climate friendly.'

By 2050, estimates indicate that beef and lamb will account for half of all agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, while only contributing three per cent of human calorie intake.

Cheese and other dairy products will account for about one quarter of total agricultural climate pollution.

To find out what this might mean for people on Earth, the WMO invited television weather presenters to imagine giving a weather report from the year 2050.

The result is a dramatic compendium of possible scenarios based on the most up-to-date climate science.

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The news forecasters include people from channels across Europe, South America and the US.

A 'teaser' video was released today, while videos from the various networks will gradually be released throughout September at the WMO website.

'While climate change is global, the impacts will be local,' the video states.

The project is aimed to support discussions that will be held at the UN Climate Summit 2014 on 23 September.

Here UN Secretary-General's Ban Ki-moon will hope to convince world leaders from government, finance, business and civil society to take decisive action against climate change.

The WMO is hoping that a meaningful legal agreement can be made to begin seriously reducing greenhouse gas emissions from next year.

How will climate change impact our weather in the year 2050?

Earth's average temperature could rise by more than 4°C (7.2°F) by the end of the 21st century, according to the researchers. This could lead to more extreme weather around the world such as storms, droughts and flooding. The videos are being released ahead of the UN Climate Summit 2014 on 23 September