2050, UN Says
Reuters; Sun Jun 13, 2:01 PM ET
to 2 billion worldwide by 2050 due to global warming, deforestation, rising sea levels and
population growth in flood-prone areas, U.N. researchers warned on Sunday.
One billion people, roughly a sixth of the world's population, now live in the potential path of
a worst-case flood, and most of these are among the planet's poorest, United Nations
University experts reported.
The Tokyo-based university issued the warning as it prepared to open an institute in Bonn,
Germany, to study the impact of the environment on human security. The institute's goal is
to help governments better cope with natural disasters.
The world will be warmer and wetter by mid-century, and the northern part of the Northern
Hemisphere will likely see more storms, said Dr. Janos Bogardi, founding director of the new
institute, in the study made public by the university.
Sea levels could rise, fed by melting glaciers and ice caps, and extreme high-water levels could
become more common, menacing small islands and coastal lowlands, he said.
Floods already kill as many as 25,000 people a year and -- along with other weather-related
disasters -- cost the world economy up to $60 billion a year, much of it in developing nations
ill-equipped to cope with such huge costs, the experts said.
"Most urgently needed to adapt to the growing risk of flood disasters is greater global capacity
to monitor and forecast extreme events," Bogardi said. "Armed with better information,
superior early warning systems and infrastructure can be installed and new planning strategies
devised," he said.
The U.N. University was established by the 191-nation General Assembly in 1973 to foster an
international community of scientists looking into global problems.
