<i>Sea level to rise 3 feet by 2100</i>

As a consequence of climate charge, the sea level will rise by up to 3 feet in Bangladesh, where water scarcity and falling crop yields exacerbate hunger and poverty, says a recent report by the World Bank.
Published on Sunday, the report says all nations will suffer the effects of a warmer world, but it is the world's poorest countries that will be hit hardest by food shortages, rising sea levels, cyclones and drought.
The study says sea level-rise by 3 feet by 2100 is likely, with higher levels also possible.
Some of the most highly vulnerable cities are located in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Mozambique, Madagascar, Mexico and Venezuela.
The report, titled "Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4 degrees Celsius Warmer World Must be Avoided”, urges "further mitigation action as the best insurance against an uncertain future”.
It highlights the devastating impact of a world hotter by 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, a likely scenario under current policies.
The study findings come as almost 200 nations meet in Doha, Qatar, from November 26 to December 7 to try to extend the Kyoto Protocol, the existing plan for curbing greenhouse gas emissions by developed nations that runs to the end of the year.
The Germany-based organisations Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Climate Analytics prepared the report for the World Bank.
Under the new World Bank president, Jim Yong Kim, the global development lender says it has launched a more aggressive stance to integrate climate change into development.
"We will never end poverty if we don't tackle climate change. It is one of the single biggest challenges to social justice today," Kim told reporters on a conference call on Friday.
Climate change is already having an effect. Arctic sea ice reached a record minimum in September, and extreme heat waves and drought in the last decade have hit places like the United States and Russia more often than would be expected from historical records, says the report.
Such extreme weather is likely to become the "new normal" if the temperature rises by 4 degrees.
This is likely to happen if not all countries comply with pledges they have made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Even assuming full compliance, the world will warm by more than 3 degrees by 2100.
Extreme heat waves would devastate broad swaths of the earth's land, from the Middle East to the United States, the report says.
The warmest July in the Mediterranean could be 9 degrees hotter than it is today -- akin to temperatures seen in the Libyan deserts.
The combined effect of all these changes could be even worse, with unpredictable effects that people may not be able to adapt to, said John Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
Rachel Kyte, the World Bank's vice-president for sustainable development, said, "This report reinforces the reality that today's climate volatility affects everything we do.”