Posted on 10/04/2006 10:06:38 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - The world's top polluting nations were told on Wednesday to prepare for decades of weather turmoil, even if they act now to curb emissions and pursue green energy sources.
Environment and energy ministers meeting in the Mexican city of Monterrey vowed to work faster to control global warming as scientists told them each year wasted in curbing greenhouse gas emissions would cost them dearly.
The informal talks did not set emissions-cutting targets, but delegates agreed on the need to expand the global carbon trading market to provide investment for green initiatives.
British Environment Secretary David Miliband said scientists told the meeting that if no action is taken, carbon dioxide emissions will more than double by 2050.
"The meeting has dramatized the need for comprehensive global action. The message about the need for early action is very strong," he told a news conference.
Yet even if countries froze emission levels tomorrow, the world still faces 30 years of floods, heatwaves, hurricanes and coastal erosion, the British government's chief scientific advisor David King, said.
King, who considers global warming a bigger threat than terrorism, said rich nations must help the developing world prepare for a weather shift that could put millions of lives at risk.
"We've got 30 years of climate change ahead of us even if we stop right now. We're persuading countries they have to adapt to the changes that are ahead of them," King told Reuters at the meeting of top greenhouse gas emitting countries.
"Because we've raised the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere so quickly, the earth's climate system is falling behind. This is way in excess of anything the planet has known, probably for 45 million years," he said.
Among countries who sent ministers to Monterrey were China and India, whose ballooning demand for energy has made them some of the worst polluters after the United States, which pumps out a quarter of the world's greenhouse gases.
The United States, which could face fiercer hurricanes as sea temperatures rise, sent a senior official, but U.S. officials did not brief the press.
Already, a roughly 1 degree Celsius temperature rise over the past century has allowed icy Greenland to start growing barley, and farmers in Spain are battling arid conditions.
"The people in denial now are the equivalent of the Flat Earth Society," British Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks told Reuters in an interview. "Humankind is in a race for life against global warming."
Delegates discussed energy efficiency, conservation and how to fund initiatives like storing the carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants deep underground.
But it is likely to be at least the end of the decade before most projects can get off the ground.
"Time is running out, and the size of the challenge is enormous," Mexican Environment Minister Jose Luis Luege said.
Developing countries at the talks - including South Africa, Brazil and Mexico - were told to adapt for possible floods, droughts, storms and a surge in tropical diseases like malaria.
Smokes pours out of a brick kiln factory in Malancha 50km (31 miles) south from the Indian city of Kolkata February 10, 2006. The world's top polluting nations were told on Wednesday to prepare for decades of weather turmoil, even if they act now to curb emissions and pursue green energy sources. (Jayanta Shaw/Reuters)
"The people in denial now are the equivalent of the Flat Earth Society," British Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks told Reuters in an interview. "Humankind is in a race for life against global warming."
We're dooooomed. Dooomed I tell you. Tho, it *is* news they're bitching at the guys that are really polluting as crazy (such as India/China) for once.
What Blatther.....and foaming at the mouth.....
The weather is more the way it is today than it has ever been before.
Naughtius' medium range predictions: (Liberals especially, take note.) We are entering a generally cooling period which will peak in about 4 months, followed by a gradual warming trend which will increase through about August of 2007. In most parts of the US, the vegetation will get brownish and barren. Around April, the green stuff will return.
A giant 'NO' is seen cut into a cornfield by Greenpeace activists protesting against genetically modified corn in central Mexico October 2, 2006. The action was meant to coincide with a meeting of some of the world's most industrialised nations in Monterrey to discuss climate change. Picture taken October 2, 2006. NO SALES NO ARCHIVES EDITORIAL USE ONLY REUTERS/Gustavo Graf/Greenpeace/Handout (MEXICO)
Cool image. Thanks!
I've been smack dab in the middle of that glob in South
Africa, up in the Transvaal area.
You're welcome! I'm a fan of interesting terrains.
TRANSVAAL, SOUTH AFRICA
http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/geomorphology/GEO_2/GEO_PLATE_T-33.shtml
Just have to love Babelfish on Rooter's.
Just last year it was predicted that hurricaines were going to be fierce from then on out into the future. Then this year turned out to be a dud.
Those folks don't know their asses from a hole in the ground.
Absolutely. There's no doubt it's going to get very much colder, to the point at which ice crystals will fall from the sky. Then a slow warming trend will be followed by months of extremely hot and humid weather. After that, the whole thing will be repeated for decades - maybe even millennia. Uncanny. Eerie, even.
Super Freaky Weather!!!
Uncontrolled coal mine fires in China emit more CO2 into the atmosphere than all the US automobiles East of the Mississippi river.
The low hanging fruit is not to be found in the highly developed US economy.
Cool! Now where is the OFF button?
I guess the next 30 years will be just like the last, oh, billion years, eh?
The left always rants about "the politics of fear" but we get a story like this one every day.
"the world still faces 30 years of floods, heatwaves, hurricanes and coastal erosion."
After 30 years they all stop again? They're no fun! What a boring bout of weather it will be!
"Delegates discussed energy efficiency, conservation and how to fund initiatives like storing the carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants deep underground. "
No discussion of thousands of new nuclear plants for electrical generation?
Who knew Mexico had an environmental minister?
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