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H03637

Headlines : Environment

Summary:

The leaders at the G8 summit do not seem to be getting the message that global warming is happening, now, and that if we want to have an inhabitable planet left in 100 years, we damn well better start doing something about it!

The debate urgently needs to shift from the question “is climate change happening?” to “what else can we need do?” or face the consequences predicted such as the melting of glaciers flooding land occupied by many millions of people.

[Posted By PerceptualChaos]

By Fred Pearce
Republished from New Scientist News Service

Climate scientists fear that this week’s G8 talks in Gleneagles, Scotland, will not hear the truth about the “clear and present danger” of climate change

Climate scientists fear that this week’s G8 talks in Gleneagles, Scotland, will not hear the truth about the “clear and present danger” of climate change.

In 2004, UK prime minister Tony Blair said that action to halt climate change would be a top priority, along with poverty in Africa, for the UK’s chairmanship of the G8 in 2005. To update politicians, he called a conference of scientists in February 2005 to discuss the risks of “dangerous” climate change and how to prevent it happening.

The meeting – held in Exeter, southwest England – concluded that the risks were “more serious than previously thought”. UK environment secretary Margaret Beckett said she believed “the conference will be seen as a turning point in the perception of climate change. It underlines the need for urgent action”.

But Will Steffen, chief scientist at the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, who helped organise the conference, says he fears the message has not got through to the leaders. “It is clear that the risk of dangerous climate change is higher than we thought even a year ago,” he told New Scientist. “World leaders should be made aware of these developments in the scientific community.”

Another organiser of the Exeter meeting, John Schellnhuber…

[end excerpt]

Click here to read the rest of the article

Posted by PerceptualChaos
PerceptualChaos is a physics (photonics) student from the University of Auckland, Aotearoa (NZ). He is working towards eventually getting a PHD and doing R&D on renewable energy sources and technology as we approach the end of the fossil fuel era Learn...

H03637

Climate scientists fear fudge at G8 meeting

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