Global warming will slash agricultural production, damage the Great Barrier Reef and Ningaloo in WA, and wipe out native species in Australia.  Those are just some of the dire predictions in the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report due out later this week.

“The scientific reasoning for reducing emissions and adapting to climate change is becoming far more compelling,” said Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC.

The Panel’s 29-page draft report identified other potential problems in Oz’s future, including:  Rising sea levels inundating low-lying areas; hotter temperatures and more frequent killer heatwaves; increased bushfires causing great economic losses.

But worst of all is the likelihood of spreading and lasting drought in the Murray-Darling Basin, as well as south-east and south-west Australia causing agricultural production to plummet as much as 40 percent.  Australia would be hit as hard as anyplace in the world when it comes to food insecurity. 

Glocal average temperatures could rise by 2 degrees by 2050.  Even before this report, earlier estimates predicted any form of outdoor work in the North will see a 20 percent loss of productivity as a result.

Scientists and more than 100 governments will meet in Japan from March 25-29 to edit and approve the report.  It will guide policies in the run-up to a United Nations summit in Paris in 2015 meant to decide a deal to curb rising greenhouse gas emissions.