|
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/07/europe/EU-GEN-Belgium-Climate-Report.php>> BRUSSELS: Global warming's effects on daily life are here already, still more pesky than catastrophic. But a new authoritative scientific report says that when the Earth gets a few degrees hotter, inconvenience will give way to danger, death and extinction of species.
The poorest parts of the world, especially Africa and Asia, will be hit hardest, says the summary from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, issued Friday after a long, contentious editing session.
It is a message the authors of the report pounded home Friday before unveiling the 23-page document. The summary was the first part released of the full 1,572-page document written and reviewed by 441 scientists.
"Don't be poor in a hot country, don't live in hurricane alley, watch out about being on the coasts or in the Arctic, and it's a bad idea to be on high mountains with glaciers melting," Stanford University scientist Stephen Schneider, an author of the study, told The Associated Press.
This document, the second of four reports, tries to explain how global warming is changing life on Earth.
Even though some of the scientists' direst prose was toned down or lost, the panel's report was gloomy — with a bit of hope at the end.>> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/05/AR2007020500273.html>> Global warming to hit poor worst, says U.N.'s Ban By Daniel Wallis Reuters Monday, February 5, 2007; 8:18 AM NAIROBI (Reuters) - The world's poor, who are the least responsible for global warming, will suffer the most from climate change, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told environment ministers from around the world on Monday.
"The degradation of the global environment continues unabated ... and the effects of climate change are being felt across the globe," Ban said in a statement after last week's toughest warning yet mankind is to blame for global warming.
In comments read on his behalf at the start of a major week-long gathering in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, Ban said all countries would feel the adverse impact of climate change.
"But it is the poor, in Africa and developing small island states and elsewhere, who will suffer the most, even though they are the least responsible for global warming."
Experts say Africa is the lowest emitter of the greenhouse gases blamed for rising temperatures, but due to its poverty, under-development and geography, has the most to lose under dire predictions of wrenching change in weather patterns.
Desertification round the Sahara and the shrinking of Mount Kilimanjaro's snow-cap have become potent symbols in Africa of the global environment crisis.
U.N. environment agencies have been lobbying Ban to play a leading role in the hunt for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gases, which expires in 2012.>> More at the links.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
