Forever Doom and Gloom

Calamitous global conflict as a result of climate change will produce hundreds of millions of refugees by 2100, said France's environmental minister Ségolène Royal.

"Climate change issues lead to conflict, and when we analyze wars and conflicts that have taken place over the last few years we see some are linked to an extent to climate change, drought is linked to food security crises," Royal said. "The difficulty of having access to food resources leads to massive migration, south-south migration," she said, referring to migration between developing countries. The African continent is particularly hit by this south-south migration," Royal continued. "If nothing is done to combat the negative impact of climate change, we will have hundreds of millions of climate change migrants by the end of the century."

Royal's remarks came only a day after the Italian coast guard announced that it had rescued 5,600 refugees in 48 hours who were attempting the treacherous sea journey from North Africa to Europe.

When making predictions, scientist tend to keep to the more moderate. The trend among scientists has been to underestimate the effects of global warming. Just about all aspects of climate change seem to be happening at least several decades before they were predicted to happen. Scientists are extremely hesitant about speculations of such things as a possible catastrophic rise in sea level.