Doug Henwood Talks

[too bad James H is on holiday or he’d be telling this is fearful
crap and we should take even more plane flights!]

Bleakest warning issued on climate By Jeff Mason 27 minutes ago BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Top climate experts issued their bleakest
forecasts yet about global warming on Friday, ranging from hunger in
Africa to a thaw of Himalayan glaciers in a study that may add
pressure on governments to act.

More than 100 nations in the U.N. climate panel agreed a final text
after all-night disputes during which some scientists accused
governments of watering down forecasts about extinctions and other
threats.

The report said change, widely blamed on human emissions of
greenhouse gases, was already under way in nature and that
desertification, droughts and rising seas would hit hard in the
tropics, from sub-Saharan Africa to Pacific islands.

“It’s the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor
people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst
hit,” said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC).

“This does become a global responsibility in my view,” said Pachauri
who added he was still wearing the same suit as on Thursday morning
because of the marathon talks.

The IPCC groups 2,500 scientists and is the top world authority on
climate change.

Its findings are approved unanimously by governments and will guide
policy on issues such as extending the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol, the
main U.N. plan for capping greenhouse gas emissions mainly from
burning fossil fuels, beyond 2012.

“This further underlines both how urgent it is to reach global
agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and how important it
is for us all to adapt to the climate change that is already under
way,” said European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas.

“The urgency of this report, prepared by the world’s top scientists,
should be matched with an equally urgent response by governments,”
echoes Hans Verolme of the WWF conservation group.

TENSION

Scientists said China, Russia and Saudi Arabia had raised most
objections overnight seeking to tone down some findings. Other
participants also said the United States, which pulled out of Kyoto
in 2001 as too costly, had toned down some passages.

“Conflict is a hard word, tension is a better word,” Gary Yohe, one
of the lead authors, said of the mood at the talks.

China, the second largest source of greenhouse gases after the United
States, sought to cut a reference to “very high confidence” that
climate change was already affecting “many natural systems, on all
continents and in some oceans.”

But delegates sharpened other sections, including adding a warning
that some African nations might have to spend 5 to 10 percent of
gross domestic product on adapting to climate change.

Overall, the report was the strongest U.N. assessment yet of the
threat of climate change, predicting water shortages that could
affect billions of people and a rise in ocean levels that could go on
for centuries.

It built on a previous IPCC report in February saying that human
greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from burning fossil fuels, are very
likely to be the main cause of recent warming.

That report also forecast that temperatures could rise by 1.8 to 4.0
Celsius (3.2 to 7.2 F) this century.

Friday’s study also said climate change could cause hunger for
millions with a sharp fall in crop yields in Africa. It could rapidly
thaw Himalayan glaciers that feed rivers from India to China and
bring heatwaves for Europe and North America.

U.S. delegates rejected suggested wording that parts of North America
may suffer “severe economic damage” from warming.

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