The rich will pay to shield themselves from the heat and hunger caused by Global Warming while the rest of the population suffers - that's the nightmare warning from a top UN human rights official.

Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, says that the "urgency and magnitude" of the Global Warming threat is "entirely disproportionate" to the meager, "patently inadequate" steps taken by countries, business, and even the United Nations itself to deal with it.  He fears that climbing temperatures will not only undermine basic rights to life, water, food, and housing for hundreds of millions of people - but also democracy and the rule of law.

"Climate change threatens to undo the last 50 years of progress in development, global health, and poverty reduction," said Alston said in his report.  It showed how developing nations will bear 75 percent of the costs of the climate crisis.  It's even more unfair because the poorest half of the world's population is responsible for just 10 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.

"The risk of community discontent, of growing inequality, and of even greater levels of deprivation among some groups, will likely stimulate nationalist, xenophobic, racist and other responses," he added.  "Maintaining a balanced approach to civil and political rights will be extremely complex."

Alston's report condemns Donald Trump for "actively silencing" US government climate scientists, and blasts Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's plans to open the Amazon to mining.  But he found bright spots in the environmental movement, especially with the activism of Swedish high schooler Greta Thunberg who has become a global icon for organizing school strikes, and the group Extinction Rebellion.