What happens after global warming?

So this century is going to be a scorcher for Australia, but the next one is going to see Australia become a (relatively) desirable place to live for populations fleeing the big freeze:

clipped from www.abc.net.au A new study from the Australian National University (ANU) has found that this country may not be as severely affected by a new ice age as countries in the Northern Hemisphere. "There are some fears that warming in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly around the Greenland ice sheet, might cause quite a bit of meltwater to come into the North Atlantic Ocean," he said. "That might change the salinity of the water there and stop what's called 'the great conveyor belt of the oceans' forming deep water that releases an enormous amount of heat that keeps Europe out of an ice age, essentially. "So if global warming does stop this circulation from occurring, then we could potentially have a new ice age in Europe." He says that finding lends support to a theory that heat will accumulate in the Southern Hemisphere if there is cooling in the north. ...supports a theory called the bipolar seesaw, which has to do with where heat goes on the planet when the conveyor belt is operating or not operating,"...

50 million desertification refugees in next 10 years

More than 200 experts from 25 countries produced a report that warns of a grim outlook if we do not combat the growing problem of advancing deserts.

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk Tens of millions of people could be driven from their homes by encroaching deserts, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia, a report says. The study by the United Nations University suggests climate change is making desertification "the greatest environmental challenge of our times". If action is not taken, the report warns that some 50 million people could be displaced within the next 10 years. The study was produced by more than 200 experts from 25 countries. Re-thinking Policies to Cope with Desertification(1.75MB) The UN report suggests that new farming practices, such as encouraging forests in dryland areas, were simple measures that could remove more carbon from the atmosphere and also prevent the spread of deserts. "Things like ecotourism or using solar energy to create other activities."

Latest global warming first: Climate refugees face mass exodus

Last year we heard of Shishmaref, an Alaskan Inuit village that had to relocate, and Puvirnituq, in Northern Quebec where igloos are no longer viable, but Bangladesh has 140 million people

"Bangladesh is nature's laboratory on disaster management," said Ainun Nishat, Bangladesh representative of the World Conservation Union and a government adviser on climate change. As temperatures rise and more severe weather takes hold worldwide, "this is one of the countries that is going to face the music most," he said.

Bangladesh is hardly the only low-lying nation facing tough times as the world warms. But scientists say it in many ways represents climate change's "perfect storm" of challenges because it is extremely poor, extremely populated and extremely susceptible.

clipped from www.chicagotribune.com ANTARPARA, Bangladesh -- Muhammad Ali, a wiry 65-year-old, has never driven a car, run an air conditioner or done much of anything that produces greenhouse gases. But on a warming planet, he is on the verge of becoming a climate refugee. In the past 10 years the farmer has had to tear down and move his tin-and-bamboo house five times to escape the encroaching waters of the huge Jamuna River, swollen by severe monsoons that scientists believe are caused by global warming and greater glacier melt in the Himalayas. Now the last of his land is gone, and Ali squats on a precarious piece of government-owned riverbank -- the only ground available -- knowing the river probably will take that as well once the monsoons start this month. "Where we are standing, in five days it will be gone," he predicts. "Our future thinking is that if this problem is not taken care of, we will be swept away."