Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Cairo - Warnings against human-induced climate change resulting from greenhouse gas emissions, scarce and strained water resources, lack of food security and deteriorating human health dominated the United Nation Development Programme's newest report. Launched in the Egypt-based League of Arab nations during an Arab environment and development ministers meeting, the UNDP's Human Development Report for 2007/2008, labelled Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world, called for collective and immediate action and warned against pessimism. "Confronted with a problem as daunting as climate change, resigned pessimism might seem a justified response," read the report. "However, resigned pessimism is a luxury that the world's poor and future generations cannot afford - and there is an alternative." The first step lies in taking adaptive measures to climate change, unique to each countries' conditions, said the report. The Arab world, like other regions, contributes to "deep carbon footprints" with Egypt having some of the highest levels of carbon emissions globally. Already, the north African country is threatened by climate shocks like floods that lessen longterm opportunities for human development. In Egypt, as in other developing counties of the Arab world, many of the poor depend on natural resources for their livelihood. However, erosion of the coast of the Nile Delta, pollution, and salinization are affecting agricultural productivity and in turn could lead to possible loss of land. "The evidence of climate change is there and the change will get worse. You find it in shortage of water in areas that are already short of water, like the Arab areas and Egypt," said Mohammed al- Ashry, UNDP official and co-author of the report. Al-Ashry told Deutsche Presse-Agentur
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