Climate Report Spurs Call for Change Now
Pastor Dale Morgan
Feb 2, 7:25 PM EST
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Climate Report Spurs Call for Change Now*
By JOHN LEICESTER
Associated Press Writer
PARIS (AP) -- The bleak outlook of a major new report on climate change
shifted the onus onto governments, even mankind, to take action, with
dire warnings Friday from around the world that drastic, rapid change is
needed - not least from the United States.
Officials in Indonesia and the Maldives, two archipelagos threatened by
rising sea levels, said they feared for the future of their lands.
Others said the threat was not simply to the environment, but to
international peace, prosperity and development.
South Africa's Environmental Affairs Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk
said failure to act would be "indefensible."
"We are now beyond a critical turning point in the debate: those who
continue to ignore the threat and its causes, or invoke half-baked
arguments to confuse and obstruct, will be doing the greatest disservice
imaginable to current and future generations," said van Schalkwyk. The
South African minister said the report "is a wake-up call to the world's
largest emitter, the United States."
Campaigners and governments pressed industrial nations to significantly
cut greenhouse-gas emissions.
"The more we know, the more precarious the future looks," said Stephanie
Tunmore, of Greenpeace. "There's a clear message to governments here,
and the window for action is narrowing fast."
There were calls for urgent talks for a new worldwide agreement to stop
global warming. Italy's environment minister, Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio,
called for a global tax on carbon emissions and a "strong" United
Nations organization for the environment.
The long-awaited report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change said global warming is "unequivocal," "very likely" man-made and
will "continue for centuries" - findings bleaker than its last report in
2001.
India, which along with China is developing rapidly with a
quickly-expanding population, faces the challenge of how to develop
economically without ruining its environment. A senior ecology official
noted that the climate change panel is "a network of scientists" that
cannot set policy.
"This is a group of climate experts attempting to reach a scientific
consensus. It doesn't commit governments to any course of action," said
the official, Pradipto Ghosh, of India's Ministry of Environment and
Forests.
The Indonesian environment minister, Rachmat Witoelar, has predicted
that some 2,000 of Indonesia's estimated 18,000 islands would be
swallowed by the sea within three decades because of man-made climate
change. He called on developing to commit to cutting emissions by 40 to
60 percent.
"We want to see our grandchildren enjoy the earth too, don't we?" Witoelar.
Ahmed Saeed, foreign minister of the Maldives, an archipelago of 1,190
low-lying coral islands off southern India, expressed similar fears.
"If the sea level rises permanently it will submerge the whole country
forever," Saeed said.
On a cold morning in Madrid, Spain, one mother had a simpler solution.
"I am worried for him more than anything," said Maite Leon, gesturing
toward her 6-month-old. "By myself I cannot do anything, but if we each
do our little bit, maybe we can change things. We have to do it all
together."
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AP writers from around the world contributed to this report.