time to start freaking out

The Center for Global Development has issued an extensive body of research on the effects of global warming on agricultural productivity. Long-term effects are scary. Developing countries, especially those around the equator where temperatures have already reached or surpassed the threshold for crop tolerance, face sad consequences. India's productivity may drop 30-40% by 2080, Sudan 56%, Senegal 52%. Southern areas of China and the US may see a reduction in yields of about 25-35%. (the full report can be found at: http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/14425).

We get a little programmed to disregard the troubling but pretty mundane forecasts like "increasing draught and heat waves," (it's like most statistics, they just fail to carry much of a punch). But late summer at sea level between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, without AC ... it's a ugly prospect. (That's most of Central and South America, Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, hot tamales!)