A lot of people seem to have interpreted the article as saying that by 2000 entire nations would be wiped off the face of earth.<p>Let's read it again.<p>“<i>A senior U.N. environmental official says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels _if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000._</i> ”<p>2000 is the limit for _reversing the trend_ !<p>Not doing that <i>could</i> mean that entire nations etc. <i>at some unspecified time</i>.<p>“ <i>He said governments have a 10-year window of opportunity to solve the greenhouse effect before it goes beyond human control</i>. ”<p>Is it clear what it says?<p>“<i>As the warming melts polar icecaps, ocean levels will rise by up to three feet, enough to cover the Maldives and other flat island nations,</i> ” ... at some point in time.<p>“<i>Coastal regions will be inundated; one-sixth of Bangladesh could be flooded, displacing a fourth of its 90 million people. A fifth of Egypt’s arable land in the Nile Delta would be flooded, cutting off its food supply</i>” at some point in time!<p>“<i>[...] Refugees [...] coast [...] crops</i>” at some point in time...<p>“<i>The most conservative scientific estimate that the Earth’s temperature will rise 1 to 7 degrees in the next 30 years, said Brown.</i><p><i>The difference may seem slight, he said, but the planet is only 9 degrees warmer now than during the 8,000-year Ice Age that ended 10,000 years ago</i>”. Others pointed out that he's using Fahrenheit. Just check the numbers.<p>“<i>Brown said if the warming trend continues, ″the question is will we be able to reverse the process in time? We say that within the next 10 years, given the present loads that the atmosphere has to bear, _we have an opportunity to start _the stabilizing process.</i>”<p>“<i>He said even the most conservative scientists ″already tell us there’s nothing we can do now to stop a ... change″ of about 3 degrees.</i><p><i>″Anything beyond that, and we have to start thinking about the significant rise of the sea levels ... we can expect more ferocious storms, hurricanes, wind shear, dust erosion</i>”. Nothing too controversial here I think, as well as in the rest of the article.<p>What's left is the disconsolation of seeing "climate skeptics" even in a place like Hacker News.<p>I guess that whatever comes we deserved it.