This week Kofi Annan, President of the Global Humanitarian Forum and former UN secretary general, warned the world of the severe consequences of not taking strong enough action against climate change; which includes millions more people falling in to poverty, loosing their homes and their lives.

The report, titled Human Impact Report: Climate Change – The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis gives some frightening statistics…

Climate change today accounts for over 300,000 deaths throughout the world each year (equivalent of an Indian Ocean Tsunami every single year)
By 2030, 500,000 will die from climate change per year.

Climate change today seriously impacts on the lives of 325 million people.
By 2030, 660 million people will be seriously impacted by climate change, making it the biggest emerging humanitarian challenge in the world, impacting on the lives of 10% of the world’s population.

Economic losses due to climate change already today amount to over $125 billion per year (this is more than the total amount of international aid to developing nations each year).
By 2030, the economic losses due to climate change will be $340 billion annually.

To avert this severe threat to humankind, we must act now. While we all wait for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen and hope that the lobbying efforts of hundreds of thousands of people around the world will ensure the right decisions are made, let’s not forget that we can all take action ourselves regardless of what they decide. Animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions; by making the right lifestyle choices we can make a difference.