| How
is this for timing. Just released today. (mb)
LONDON
(Reuters) - Climate change is already increasing the frequency
and intensity of natural disasters, and the trend is likely
to continue according to a report released Friday by the
World Wide Fund for Nature.
The
report, 'Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events', said
global temperatures would increase, sea levels would rise,
and few places in the world would be spared an increase
in violent rainstorms, droughts, tropical cyclones and
other climatic disruptions.
Equation:
(mitch battros)
Sunspots = Solar Flares = Magnetic
Shift = Shifting Ocean and Jet Stream Currents = Extreme
Weather
Dr.
Ute Collier, head of the WWF's Climate Change Program,
said the evidence to show extreme weather was the result
of global warming was overwhelming.
"We
got leading scientists to investigate (the evidence) --
we wanted scientists because they're often reluctant to
link events such as more floods and the disappearance
of Arctic ice to climate change -- and they've said that
climate change is clearly having an impact on the frequency
and intensity of natural disasters," Collier told BBC
radio Friday.
The
report was compiled for the WWF by Pier Vellings and Willem
van Verseveld of the Institute of Environmental Studies
at the Vrije University in Amsterdam, using observations
and documents on climate patterns produced by various
organizations over recent decades.
Stark
Choice For World
The
authors said the increase in extreme weather would affect
different parts of the world differently, and that the
southern hemisphere would suffer most.
Southern
Europe was expected to become drier while northern Europe
would become wetter. In Britain, summer droughts in the
southeast would become more frequent and there would be
more winter rainfall across the country, with more frequent
flooding.
The
authors are cautious over the causes of climate change,
but said "at least part of the damage caused by weather
extremes is due to human-induced climate change."
"The
world faces a stark choice -- reduce emissions or face
the fury of nature," said Collier.
However,
Richard North of the Institute of Economic Affairs said
the consensus view of the Inter-governmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) -- a panel of leading world scientists
-- was that little could be done to reverse the trend
of global warming, and that humans needed to adjust to
it.
"The
IPCC says we've put our foot on the accelerator and taking
it off a bit won't make much difference," he told BBC
radio. "The Greens are defending very high petrol prices.
They're ignoring evidence that fuel prices have doubled
in the last decade but it's had hardly any impact on carbon
dioxide emissions."
Mitch
Battros
Producer - Earth Changes TV
http://www.earthchangesTV.com
ECTV
Store: http://www.earthchangestv.com/VStore/index2000.htm
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