UN: Climate Change Here And Getting Worse

Report Warns Global Warming Could Have "Abrupt And Irreversible" Results

(CBS/AP)  The Earth is hurtling toward a warmer climate at a quickening pace, a Nobel-winning U.N. scientific panel said in a landmark report released Saturday, warning of inevitable human suffering and the threat of extinction for some species.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said climate change imperils "the most precious treasures of our planet" and called on the United States and China -- the world's two biggest polluters - to do more to fight it.

As early as 2020, 75 million to 250 million people in Africa will suffer water shortages, residents of Asia's megacities will be at great risk of river and coastal flooding, Europeans can expect extensive species loss, and North Americans will experience longer and hotter heat waves and greater competition for water, the report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says.

The potential impact of global warming is "so severe and so sweeping that only urgent, global action will do," Ban told the IPCC after it issued its fourth and final report this year.

The IPCC adopted the report, along with a summary, after five days of sometimes tense negotiations. It lays out blueprints for avoiding the worst catastrophes - and various possible outcomes, depending on how quickly and decisively action is taken.

The document says recent research has heightened concern that the poor and the elderly will suffer most from climate change; that hunger and disease will be more common; that droughts, floods and heat waves will afflict the world's poorest regions; and that more animal and plant species will vanish.

The Summary for Policymakers, and the longer version, called the synthesis report, distill thousands of pages of data and computer models from six years of research compiled by the IPCC.

The information is expected to guide policy makers meeting in Bali, Indonesia, next month to discuss an agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

The panel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year along with former Vice President Al Gore for their efforts to raise awareness about the effects of climate change.

The report is important because it is adopted by consensus, meaning countries accept the underlying science and cannot disavow its conclusions. While it does not commit governments to a specific course of action, it provides a common scientific baseline for the political talks.

The U.N. says a new global plan must be in place by 2009 to ensure a smooth transition after the expiration of the Kyoto terms, which require 36 industrial countries to radically reduce their carbon emissions by 2012.

"There are real and affordable ways to deal with climate change," Ban said. He said a new agreement should provide funding to help poor countries adopt clean energy and to adapt to changing climates.

Ban encouraged the United States and China, which have stood apart from the Kyoto accord, to join in the next phase of cooperative efforts against climate change.

"I look forward to seeing the U.S. and China playing a more constructive role starting from the Bali conference," Ban told reporters. "Both countries can lead in their own way."

But the Bush administration is making no promises, reports CBS News correspondent Joie Chen.

Just last week, the president signaled that his focus is on getting companies to do what they can to help - voluntarily.

"It's easier to deal with the climate change issue if you've got the revenues and finances to invest in new technologies that will change how we live, and at the same time enable us to grow our economies," President Bush said.

[Syndicate]

Yet they still can''t tell me what the weather will be in two weeks. I still don''t get how .01% change in the composition of the atmosphere can end the world. Sorry but something is not right with all these calculations.

[ralan40]

obviously, the Kyoto accord did not prohibit hunting whales or protecting endangerd species since Japan signed it. So it must be OK to eradicate endangered species and still be considered ''environmentally responsible''
interesting....

[nggr]

hmmmm...
i dont know,
jesus didn''t say anything about climate change.
and 5 % of scientists say its not true.
i dont think it exists

[ralan40]

climate change has always happened. Finding fossells of tropical plant like in Polar regeons is nothing new.
Since the last ice age, the Earth has been warming and ocean levels have been rising for centuries at the same rate due to melting polar regions. Why are people suddenly considering this climate changethroughout recorded time? We need to look at the impact of our burgening population increases on the environment before freaking out about something that has been going on for the last 11,000 years.

[ralan40]

climate change has always happened. Since the last ice age, the Earth has been warming. The ocean levels have been rising for centuries from melting polar regions. Why are people suddenly considering this a new thing when mankind has been dealing with this for centuries? We need to look at the impact of our population on the environment before freaking out about something that has been happening for the last 11,000 years.

[g-gfather]

Why are there no comments on this report?????

[denn034]

At one time global warming is getting worse and at another time the shrinking hole in the atmosphere proves that global warming is less of a problem. Make up your minds people.

[tngreen]

"It''s easier to deal with the climate change issue if you''ve got the revenues and finances to invest in new technologies that will change how we live, and at the same time enable us to grow our economies," President Bush said.

Somehow he finds the "revenues and finances" to invest in new war technologies. Could this man be any dumber or more evil?

[plantain11]

a

[jimc52]

Part I

It''s not just the US and China that needs to change. I just read an article that says that some of the worst polluters of generated electricity are third world nations. But all the emphasis is placed on the two largest industrial nations. We need to have a balanced, unified world change. If the US and China immediately stopped all sources of pollution, I don''t believe the problem would be solved. This is going to take a world-wide shift in military-political-economic thinking. It means, ALL OF US, have to contribute to the change, and it is going to require a dynamic shift of thinking by mankind. Either that, or we are going to have a Kevin Costner Water World. What it means is, that mankind must give up it''s primitive thinking about "every nation for itself." This is a global problem, which includes all of us, and not just developed nations, but all nations, including third world ones. It means, we are going to have to change the way we do business because business as usual has brought us to where we are. And of course, one, if not, THE biggest problem is energy. Yet, we sit on top of the largest source of energy that exists in the world - water, which is 2/3rd hydrogen. By building wave action electrical generators on coastlines, we could take in sea water and convert it to hydrogen, compress it to a liquid and use it as fuel.

[jimc52]

Part I

It''s not just the US and China that needs to change. I just read an article that says that some of the worst polluters of generated electricity are third world nations. But all the emphasis is placed on the two largest industrial nations. We need to have a balanced, unified world change. If the US and China immediately stopped all sources of pollution, I don''t believe the problem would be solved. This is going to take a world-wide shift in military-political-economic thinking. It means, ALL OF US, have to contribute to the change, and it is going to require a dynamic shift of thinking by mankind. Either that, or we are going to have a Kevin Costner Water World. What it means is, that mankind must give up it''s primitive thinking about "every nation for itself." This is a global problem, which includes all of us, and not just developed nations, but all nations, including third world ones. It means, we are going to have to change the way we do business because business as usual has brought us to where we are. And of course, one, if not, THE biggest problem is energy. Yet, we sit on top of the largest source of energy that exists in the world - water, which is 2/3rd hydrogen. By building wave action electrical generators on coastlines, we could take in sea water and convert it to hydrogen, compress it to a liquid and use it as fuel.

[jimc52]

Part I

It''s not just the US and China that needs to change. I just read an article that says that some of the worst polluters of generated electricity are third world nations. But all the emphasis is placed on the two largest industrial nations. We need to have a balanced, unified world change. If the US and China immediately stopped all sources of pollution, I don''t believe the problem would be solved. This is going to take a world-wide shift in military-political-economic thinking. It means, ALL OF US, have to contribute to the change, and it is going to require a dynamic shift of thinking by mankind. Either that, or we are going to have a Kevin Costner Water World. What it means is, that mankind must give up it''s primitive thinking about "every nation for itself."
This is a global problem, which includes all of us, and not just developed nations, but all nations, including third world ones. It means, we are going to have to change the way we do business because business as usual has brought us to where we are. And of course, one, if not, THE biggest problem is energy. Yet, we sit on top of the largest source of energy that exists in the world - water, which is 2/3rd hydrogen. By building wave action electrical generators on coastlines, we could take in sea water and convert it to hydrogen, compress it to a liquid and use it as fuel.

[donbl1]

So, if these guys who can not forecast next month and are forecasting "2020" are wrong, what is the penalty?

Countries are going to spend trillions of dollars globally. Jobs are going to be impacted. Economies are going to be impacted.

Here, from arid and VERY hot we have gone to mild and wet. It has become a better environment

[donbl1]

So, if these guys who can not forecast next month and are forecasting "2020" are wrong, what is the penalty?

Countries are going to spend trillions of dollars globally. Jobs are going to be impacted. Economies are going to be impacted.

Here, from arid and VERY hot we have gone to mild and wet. It has become a better environment

[jasarack]

Our president, who led us into the disasterous invasion of Iraq, has demonstrated his unwillingness to deal the the impending disaster brought by global warming. You might call him the Disaster President.

[prairiefox1]

LAST WEEK ON TV IT WAS SAID THAT THE OZONE HOLE HAD SHRUNK TO NORMAL SIZE!
THE SUN IS HOTTER! (IT DOES THIS IN CYCLES)!
THE ICE CAPS ON EARTH AND MARS ARE MELTING!
WE HAVE A BUNCH OF LITTLE SCIENTISTS BELLOWING ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING TO GET FUNDS AND TO BE RECOGNIZED

[prairiefox1]

LAST WEEK ON TV IT WAS SAID THAT THE OZONE HOLE HAD SHRUNK TO NORMAL SIZE!
THE SUN IS HOTTER! (IT DOES THIS IN CYCLES)!
THE ICE CAPS ON EARTH AND MARS ARE MELTING!
WE HAVE A BUNCH OF LITTLE SCIENTISTS BELLOWING ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING TO GET FUNDS AND TO BE RECOGNIZED

[prairiefox1]

LAST WEEK ON TV IT WAS SAID THAT THE OZONE HOLE HAD SHRUNK TO NORMAL SIZE!
THE SUN IS HOTTER! (IT DOES THIS IN CYCLES)!
THE ICE CAPS ON EARTH AND MARS ARE MELTING!
WE HAVE A BUNCH OF LITTLE SCIENTISTS BELLOWING ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING TO GET FUNDS AND TO BE RECOGNIZED

[prairiefox1]

LAST WEEK ON TV IT WAS SAID THAT THE OZONE HOLE HAD SHRUNK TO NORMAL SIZE!
THE SUN IS HOTTER! (IT DOES THIS IN CYCLES)!
THE ICE CAPS ON EARTH AND MARS ARE MELTING!
WE HAVE A BUNCH OF LITTLE SCIENTISTS BELLOWING ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING TO GET FUNDS AND TO BE RECOGNIZED

[jowand]

The UN hype didn''t work so it''s now time to try being hysterical. Absolutely no proof that humans are the cause of this. It''s all aimed at crippling the US economy by the leftist goverments around the world, who have managed to con the usual Liberals into being sypathetic to another bash America cause.