Paradise lost: climate change forces South Sea islanders to seek sanctuary abroad By Kathy Marks, Asia-Pacific Correspondent - Friday, 6 June 2008 After years of fruitless appeals for decisive action on climate change, the tiny South Pacific nation of Kiribati has concluded that it is doomed. Yesterday its President, Anote Tong, used World Environment Day to request international help to evacuate his country before it disappears. Water supplies are being contaminated by the encroaching salt water, Mr Tong said, and crops destroyed. Beachside communities have been moved inland. But Kiribati – 33 coral atolls sprinkled across two million square miles of ocean – has limited scope to adapt. Its highest land is barely 6 feet above sea level.
Good News From the South Pole? Does growing sea ice in Antarctica bode well for the future? By Brendan I. Koerner - Posted Tuesday, June 3, 2008, at 7:04 AM ET We've all heard that the Arctic ice is disappearing, surefire proof that global warming will kill us all. But isn't it also true that Antarctica's ice is growing by leaps and bounds? Doesn't that mean we're getting into a lather over nothing? The area covered by Antarctica's sea ice has indeed expanded over the past two decades. So in the most literal sense, yes, you're right. But it's a fallacious leap of logic to argue that this trend bodes well for the planet's health. The increase in sea ice around the South Pole may actually be bad news—an indicator that steadily rising temperatures are already wreaking havoc.
What will climate change do to our health? 07 Apr 2008 07:04:00 GMT - Written by: Megan Rowling Scientists and health experts are working to gather more data and evidence on how climate change affects diseases and other aspects of health. Statistics are hard to come by. Between 1997 and 2006, weather-related disasters killed an average of 71,000 people a year, according to the Brussels-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. But it's impossible to say to what extent those disasters were caused by climate change. People often cite a World Health Organisation estimate that the effects of climate change since the mid-1970s may have caused over 150,000 deaths in 2000. WHO says the impacts are likely to increase in the future.
Human tide: the real migration crisis/14.05.07 At least one billion people will be forced from their homes between now and 2050 as the effects of climate change deepen an already burgeoning global migration crisis, predicts a new Christian Aid report.
As the Climate Changes, Bits of England’s Coast Crumble By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL Published: May 4, 2007 Coastal erosion in parts of Britain has never been as quick and cataclysmic as it has been in recent years, an effect of climate change and global warming, many scientists say.
Super storms 'linked' to global warming One of the fiercest tropical storms to hit Australia has scientists and environmentalists concerned that global warming could lead to more super cyclones.
If we don't act now, America's polar bears could be gone within our lifetime. Just last week there was an alarming new development -- oil exploration lease sales for Alaska’s Chukchi Seas - prime polar bear habitat --officially began. This area has been off-limits to drilling since 1991, but the new lease sales have encouraged oil companies to bid in epic proportions, with the result that oil lease rights to nearly 30 million acres of disappearing polar bear habitat were auctioned off - an area that is home to an estimated one-tenth of the world’s polar bears!
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been established by WMO and UNEP to assess scientific, technical and socio- economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. It is currently finalizing its Fourth Assessment Report "Climate Change 2007". The reports by the three Working Groups provide a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the current state of knowledge on climate change. The Synthesis Report integrates the information around six topic areas.
Climate change is one of the greatest environmental, social and economic threats facing the planet. (European Commission Environment) The warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level. The Earth's average surface temperature has risen by 0.76° C since 1850. Most of the warming that has occurred over the last 50 years is very likely to have been caused by human activities. In its Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), published on 2 February 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that, without further action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the global average surface temperature is likely to rise by a further 1.8-4.0°C this century. Even the lower end of this range would take the temperature increase since pre-industrial times above 2°C, the threshold beyond which irreversible and possibly catastrophic changes become far more likely.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been established by WMO and UNEP to assess scientific, technical and socio- economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. It is currently finalizing its Fourth Assessment Report "Climate Change 2007", also referred to as AR4. The reports by the three Working Groups provide a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the current state of knowledge on climate change. The Synthesis Report integrates the information around six topic areas
