Yesterday's report from the scientific committee of the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) is stating categorically that the temperature on Earth is rising more than expected, that the process of the human created global warming is about to become irreversible and that it's about to run wild. The violent increase in temperature is bringing with it higher sea level, more and more powerful storms, more floods, more droughts, more hunger and also new, emerging, unpredictable weather like the latest El Nino developments. Water scarcity already prevalent in major parts of the world, will be pronounced throughout the globe.
WEEK 5 Jan 22nd to 28th
IPCC: TEMPERATURE RISE FAR HIGHER THAN EXPECTED
- The scientific agreement concerning this report should make the alarm sound in governments and local communities all over the world, the leader of the Shanghai conference Klaus Topfer told journalists. If those bells are ringing, however, it seems to be the silent type, that no one can hear, or nobody is listening to.
At least tens of million people will be forced to move from lover level areas because of the rising sea. The changes the next 100 years will be far more severe than during the previous 100. Concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased with 31 percent since 1750, an increase more severe than anything previously happening over a period of 20000 years. The current level is higher than any the last 20 million years. Since 1950 the temperature has risen with one degree every tenth year, with 1990 as the warmest decade and 1998 as the warmest year ever recorded since wide spread recordings started in 1861.
CO2 is the main gas causing the warming. 75 percent of this gas comes from fossil fuel, for instance all kinds of oil products. The remaining 25 percent is caused by deforestation.
The revised figures in temperature rise, though, compared to the report from 1995, have been known for years and it was expected that the IPCC would go even further in their predictions.
There are scientists, paid by corporations and industry, who're even denying the warming as a possibility and stating that if there is a warming, it isn't in any way caused by human activity.
There are also completely independent scientists who are claiming that the temperature rise during this century will be close to ten degrees Celsius... at least twice the rise predicted by the IPCC scientific committee. They're also pointing out the danger of the so-called "Runaway greenhouse effect", a scenario where the temperature will rise to the levels on the planet Venus, where there are several hundred degrees Celsius on the surface.
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GALAPAGOS - THE LAST REFUGEE?
The President of Ecuador Gustavo Noboa has declared martial law on the Galapagos Islands because of an oil-spill threatening the famous nature reserve. An oil slick from the ship "Jessica" reached the shore of one of the island yesterday. So far 600 tons of oil has created an oil slick of over 1200 square kilometers.
UNESCO has called for an international mobilization to save life on the Islands.
OIL SPILL MORE SERIOUS THAN REPORTED
The oil-spill from the shipwreck John R, outside the Norwegian county of Troms, has turned out to be far more serious than initially reported. Reports are coming in from all over the county about dead seabirds. The environmental authorities fear a disaster of enormous proportions. The oil is leaking from the wreck in smaller bursts, but there is still enough oil to kill thousands of seabirds. The area is a nesting place for migrating birds returning in February.
There have been at least 7 major accidents outside the coast of Norway the last month alone.
Entered 2001-01-23