Global warming is not a future apocalypse, but a present reality
for many of the world's poorest people, according to the most
hard-hitting United Nations report yet on climate change, A
catalogue of the "climate shocks" that have already hit the
world is set out in the Human Development Report 2007/08. Fewer
than two per cent of these have affected rich countries. Europe
had its most intense heatwave for 50 years and Japan its
greatest number of tropical cyclones in a single year. But far
more intense drought, floods and storms than usual have plagued
the developing world. Monsoons displaced 14 million people in
India, seven million in Bangladesh and three million in China
which has seen the heaviest rainfall - and second highest death
toll - since records began. Cyclones blasted Indonesia, the
Philippines and Vietnam. Hurricanes devastated the Caribbean and
Central America, killing more than 1,600 Mayan people in
Guatemala. Droughts have afflicted Africa, driving 14 million
people from their homes. In the r