The prediction is an across the board global prediction. It could have radically different repercussions in the hundreds of micro-environments around the world. Major river systems such as the Ganges in Bangladesh could dry up. Fisheries could be disrupted, and new famines and diseases occur. Politicians are fighting to assign the blame at Kyoto.
Rich countries preach eco-values but only so far.
The green lobby and the poorer countries of the south think they haven't gone far enough in trying to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The bottom line is, the weather getting a little warmer and the sea rising a few inches are simple effects. Take those effects and put them in a complicating eddy of ecological effects and the results could be deadly. Of course, they might not. Global warming might just mean more of the world becomes tropical and surfs.