date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 16:24:57 -0400
from: Adam Markham <Adam.Markham@WWFUS.ORG>
subject: Nature Group Issues Climate Warning -Forwarded
to: m.hulme@uea.ac.uk

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Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 09:38:33 -0400
From: Savitha Pathi  <savitha@ems.org>
To: jennifer.morgan@WWFUS.ORG
Subject: Nature Group Issues Climate Warning
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>                          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


