STANFORD, Calif., Feb. 24 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they have discovered even slight increases in global temperatures could lead to greater calamities than previously thought.
The study finds that even a lower level of increase in global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions could cause significant problems in five key areas of global concern.
The researchers said the five areas are:
--Risk to unique and threatened systems, such as the potential for increased damage to, or irreversible loss of, unique and threatened systems such as coral reefs, tropical glaciers and endangered species.
--Risk of extreme weather events, including increases in the frequency, intensity or consequences of heat waves, floods, droughts, wildfires or tropical cyclones.
--Distribution of impacts, with some regions, countries and populations facing greater harm from climate change, while other areas would be much less harmed -- and some may benefit.
--Aggregate damages, which covers comprehensive measures of impacts from climate change, with global warming likely adversely impacting hundreds of millions of people.
--Risks of large-scale discontinuities, with the likelihood that certain phenomena would occur, any of which might be accompanied by very large impacts, such as the melting of major ice sheets.
The research that included scientists from Stanford, Princeton and Wesleyan Universities and Stratus Consulting in Boulder Colo., is detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
