Panel warns of global warming consequences

VALENCIA – A Nobel-winning UN panel of scientists issued a stark vision of human hardship and vanishing species in a world growing increasingly hot, prompting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to challenge governments to join hands against climate change.

“The world’s scientists have spoken clearly and with one voice,” Ban said on Saturday, looking ahead to a critical climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, in two weeks. “I expect the world’s policy makers to do the same.”The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shares this year’s Nobel Peace prize with former US Vice President Al Gore, adopted a report along with a concise Summary for Policymakers after five days of sometimes tense negotiations among 140 national delegations.Climate change is here, the reports said, as witnessed by melting snow and glaciers, higher average temperatures and rising sea levels.If unchecked, global warming will spread hunger and disease, put further stress on water resources, cause fiercer storms and more frequent droughts, and could drive up to 70 per cent of plant and animal species to extinction, it said.Ban said he witnessed the devastation of climate change in disappearing glaciers of Antarctica, the deforested Amazon and under the ozone hole in Chile.”These scenes are as frightening as a science fiction movie,” said Ban.”But they are even more terrifying because they are real.”The report offered dozens of measures for avoiding the worst catastrophes if taken together – at a cost of less than 0,12 per cent of the global economy annually until 2050.They ranged from switching to nuclear and gas-fired power stations, developing hybrid cars, using more efficient electrical appliances and managing cropland to store more carbon.The fourth and final IPCC report this year distills the three earlier reports totaling more than 3 000 pages into six brief chapters and a 23-page summary.IPCC reports are adopted by consensus, meaning participating countries accept the underlying science and cannot disavow its conclusions.While it does not commit governments to specific action, it provides a common scientific baseline for the political talks.Nampa-AP”I expect the world’s policy makers to do the same.”The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shares this year’s Nobel Peace prize with former US Vice President Al Gore, adopted a report along with a concise Summary for Policymakers after five days of sometimes tense negotiations among 140 national delegations.Climate change is here, the reports said, as witnessed by melting snow and glaciers, higher average temperatures and rising sea levels.If unchecked, global warming will spread hunger and disease, put further stress on water resources, cause fiercer storms and more frequent droughts, and could drive up to 70 per cent of plant and animal species to extinction, it said.Ban said he witnessed the devastation of climate change in disappearing glaciers of Antarctica, the deforested Amazon and under the ozone hole in Chile.”These scenes are as frightening as a science fiction movie,” said Ban.”But they are even more terrifying because they are real.”The report offered dozens of measures for avoiding the worst catastrophes if taken together – at a cost of less than 0,12 per cent of the global economy annually until 2050.They ranged from switching to nuclear and gas-fired power stations, developing hybrid cars, using more efficient electrical appliances and managing cropland to store more carbon.The fourth and final IPCC report this year distills the three earlier reports totaling more than 3 000 pages into six brief chapters and a 23-page summary.IPCC reports are adopted by consensus, meaning participating countries accept the underlying science and cannot disavow its conclusions.While it does not commit governments to specific action, it provides a common scientific baseline for the political talks.Nampa-AP