date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 16:24:57 -0400 from: Adam Markham subject: Nature Group Issues Climate Warning -Forwarded to: m.hulme@uea.ac.uk Received: from smtp-out.vma.verio.net ([168.143.0.23]) by smtp.wwfus.org (GroupWise SMTP/MIME daemon 4.1 v3) ; Wed, 20 Oct 99 09:44:02 EDT Received: from smtp-gw.vma.verio.net ([168.143.0.18]) by smtp-out.vma.verio.net with esmtp (Exim 2.10 #1) id 11dvzd-00027h-00 for jennifer.morgan@wwfus.org; Wed, 20 Oct 1999 09:41:29 -0400 Received: from local.fenton.com (local.fenton.com [199.245.22.2]) by smtp-gw.vma.verio.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id JAA12413 for ; Wed, 20 Oct 1999 09:42:08 -0400 (EDT) Received: from SERVER1/SpoolDir by local.fenton.com (Mercury 1.43); 20 Oct 99 09:39:08 -0500 Received: from SpoolDir by SERVER1 (Mercury 1.43); 20 Oct 99 09:38:42 -0500 Received: from w206 (199.245.22.206) by local.fenton.com (Mercury 1.43); 20 Oct 99 09:38:33 -0500 Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19991020093833.008fe100@[199.245.22.2]> X-Sender: savitha.ems@[199.245.22.2] X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.5 (32) Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 09:38:33 -0400 From: Savitha Pathi To: jennifer.morgan@WWFUS.ORG Subject: Nature Group Issues Climate Warning Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Disposition: inline > Copyright 1999 Associated Press > > AP Online > > October 19, 1999; Tuesday 11:47 Eastern Time > >SECTION: International news > >LENGTH: 441 words > >HEADLINE: Nature Group Issues Climate Warning > >DATELINE: GENEVA > >BODY: > > Cities including New York and Tokyo may face flooding; large swathes of > Latin America will suffer from drought and Australia's Great Barrier Reef >may be > destroyed unless more is done to stop global warming, the World Wildlife Fund > for Nature warned Tuesday. > > The environmental group urged governments meeting in Germany next week to > honor earlier pledges to cut emissions of carbon dioxide one of the main > greenhouse gases by implementing tough energy-saving policies. > > ''Evidence for the warming of our planet over the last 200 years is now > overwhelming,'' said a WWF statement. ''With no action to curb emissions, the > climate on earth over the next century could become warmer than any the human > species has lived through.'' > > It said China's Giant Panda and the Arctic polar bear were among the >species > at risk of extinction from global warming. > > WWF commissioned the Climatic Research Unit at Britain's University of East > Anglia to conduct research into various climate change scenarios over the >next > few decades. > > It projected that sea levels would rise between three-quarters of an >inch to > four inches per decade. This would threaten low-lying U.S. coastal cities >such > as New York, Boston, Baltimore and Miami with flooding. The Japanese >cities of > Tokyo and Osaka among others would also be at risk, it said. > > Large areas of the Amazon would become more susceptible to forest fires. > Drought would also likely affect Argentina, southern Mexico and Central >America. > Rising sea temperatures by 2010 threatened the very survival of the >Australian > Great Barrier Reef. > > Scientists generally agree that temperatures are rising with 1998 being the > warmest year on record. But there is no consensus on how much man is to >blame. > > ''Although the precise contribution of human activities to global warming > cannot yet be stated with confidence, it is clear the planet would not be > warming as rapidly if humans were not currently emitting about 6.8 >billion tons > of carbon into the atmosphere each year,'' said the WWF report. > > Under a 1997 agreement reached in the Japanese city of Kyoto, >industrialized > nations agreed to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by five percent >between > 2008 and 2012. > > Representatives from 150 countries meet later this month in Bonn to work on > ways of implementing the Kyoto deal prior to a November 2000 meeting in the > Netherlands. > > While President Clinton signed the Kyoto agreement, he has not sought its > ratification because of widespread opposition in the Senate. Critics say it >will > cost too much to implement while developing countries will be allowed to let > greenhouse emissions grow. > > > > > >LANGUAGE: ENGLISH > >LOAD-DATE: October 19, 1999 > ___________________________________________ Savitha Pathi Program Assistant Environmental Media Services 1320 18th Street NW Washington, DC 20036 Tel: (202) 463-6670 / Fax: (202) 463-6671 E-Mail: savitha@ems.org http://www.ems.org