Red alert call on global warming
Pastor Dale Morgan
Red alert call on global warming*
UN chief calls for Antarctic action
By Juan Jose Lagorio in Antarctica
November 10, 2007 06:02pm
Article from: Reuters
WITH prehistoric Antarctic ice sheets melting beneath his feet, UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for urgent political action to
tackle global warming.
Antarctica has warmed faster than anywhere else on Earth in the last 50
years, making it a fitting destination for Ban, who has made climate
change a priority since he took office earlier this year.
"I need a political answer. This is an emergency and for emergency
situations we need emergency action," he said during yesterday's visit
to three scientific bases on the barren continent, where temperatures
are their highest in about 1800 years.
Antarctica's ice sheets are nearly 2.5km thick on average - five times
the height of the Taipei 101 tower, the world's tallest building. But
scientists say they are already showing signs of climate change.
Satellite images show the West Antarctic ice sheet is thinning and may
even collapse in the future, causing sea levels to rise.
Amid occasional flurries of snow, Ban flew over melting ice fields in a
light plane, where vast chunks of ice the size of six-storey buildings
could be seen floating off the coast after breaking away from ice shelves.
"All we've seen has been very impressive and beautiful, extraordinarily
beautiful," he told reporters.
"But at the same time it's disturbing. We've seen ... the melting of
glaciers."
It was the first visit by a UN chief to Antarctica.
Ban is preparing for a UN climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia,
in December, which is expected to kick off talks on a new accord to curb
carbon emissions after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
Ban has focused strongly on the environment and held a climate change
summit at the United Nations on the eve of the annual General Assembly
gathering of world leaders.
He is expected to continue his South American tour at Chilean national
park Torres del Paine, where Andean glaciers are also being affected by
global warming.
He will then visit Brazil, a leading force in developing biofuels from
crops as an alternative to fossil fuels. Fears about climate change have
fuelled a boom in biofuels.
Despite the controversy of diverting food crops into fuel production,
Ban has said alternative energy sources are vital to addressing climate
change.
Antarctica - a continent with only about 80,000 temporary residents - is
25 per cent bigger than Europe and its ice sheets hold some 90 per cent
of the fresh water on the Earth's surface.