Posted on 08/27/2002 5:46:31 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The devastating floods which have killed scores of people across central Europe are the wake-up call that could push industrial nations to act faster to stop the planet heating up, a leading scientist says.
Robert Watson, now the World Bank's chief scientist since he was ousted from the chair of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) in April due to U.S. opposition, insists dramatic floods and droughts will become more frequent.
"You don't have to identify each event with climate change. All you have to say is this is the type of world that may become more prevalent. It is the sort of wake-up call, I believe, that could have an impact," he told reporters at the Earth Summit on Tuesday.
Scientists say "greenhouse gases" produced by human activities during the past 100 years have made the world a warmer place and increased carbon dioxide emissions are set to linger in the earth's atmosphere for years to come.
As head of the IPPC, Watson predicted the Earth's temperature could rise by up to 5.8 degrees Celsius (10.4 Fahrenheit) over the coming century, a change that he says would lead to more extreme weather patterns.
"(The floods are) the type of event which will become more prevalent in a warmer world. It's the sort of thing that can be a wake-up message to say 'If this becomes more frequent this is not the type of event we want to see in the future'," he said.
Besides the floods which swept across Europe this month, hundreds have died as torrential rain hit China, Nepal, Iran and the Philippines in recent weeks.
Watson said as the globe heats up rainfall would become heavier and more frequent in areas where it already rains a lot while arid areas would suffer from more droughts.
On the positive side, crop yields would increase in more temperate zones, such as Europe and North America, but this would be offset by a decrease in the tropical zones where many of the world's poor live.
Climate change is notably absent from the agenda at the 10-day World Summit on Sustainable Development, a conference to find ways of hauling millions of poor out of economic despair without putting further strain on the planet's ecosystem.
The United States, which emits a quarter of the world's man-made greenhouse gases, has rejected the Kyoto protocol on cutting pollution and Watson says pressure from Washington ensured climate change was not on the agenda in Johannesburg.
If we have a colder than normal winter in my area can I attribute that to "global cooling", and use that as a basis for espousing a policy of increased use of carbon-based fuels (to increase the greenhouse effect and thereby mitigate the consequences of "global cooling")? I could, but would be laughed off the stage of scientific debate.
Funny how that doesn't happen with liberals, no matter what flavor of the month junk science they seem to be pushing. They are allowed, by the press and the public, to err egregiously because "their hearts are in the right place", yet if a conservative leaves an "i" undotted or a "t" uncrossed, they are nailed to the wall because they are "evil", or "mean-spirited", or "don't care about the environment". It's a tribute, in a diabolical way, I guess, to the Machiavellian talents of liberals to cast so many debates in these terms.
Interesting enough, the weather channel has report record breaking temperatures in Oakland California each of the last two days. They were new low temperatures.
And if you don't do as we tell you even more shall die, said the scientist.
And there'll be more dark, and more light. And it'll be hotter and colder.
Watson reminds me of the guys in the Smirnoff Ice commercial.
Hey! It's Sergio! ;-)
With good reason as this proves.
About as mealy-mouthed a statement as I've ever heard.
If you review world history, you will find that the sea level used to be about 20 feet higher in most areas of the globe only 2000 years ago. Why aren't all the story's on global weather warnings asking what we did to the earth to make all that water vanish?
This just goes to prove the point that I have been trying to make for years. We are NOT in control of the weather. Bad weather doesn't happen because Ford sold a lot of Excursions. The planet doesn't need rescue or to be saved from us...it's big enough to take care of itself. Ask those people in Pompei who have been frozen in vucanic ash for centuries if they feel particularly threatening to the biosphere today. If we could influence the weather, we would have flooded Iraq, Iran and North Korea a long time ago. If we could do ANYTHING to change the weather, the military would have jumped on this with both feet and made it into a weapon.
[Cockney accent] By jove, I think 'e's got it! [/cockney accent]
Global warming is a fact, 100% certainty.
A. True
B. False
Multiple choice - Global warming is caused by
A. Ronald Reagan's policies
B. Rich republicans
C. GW Bush
D. All of the above
If you answered A. to question 1. and D. to question 2, CONGRATULATIONS! You now have a degree in junk science and you too can be interviewed on CNN to share your wisdom with others.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.