<sigh>
On Jan 27, 2008 12:25 PM, Harry Veeder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Climate change 'significantly worse' than feared: Al Gore by Staff Writers
>
> Davos, Switzerland (AFP) Jan 24, 2008
>
> Climate change is occurring far faster than even the worst predictions of
> the UN's Nobel Prize-winning scientific panel on climate change foresaw, Al
> Gore warned Thursday.
>
> New evidence shows "the climate crisis is significantly worse and unfolding
> more rapidly than those on the pessimistic side of the IPCC projections had
> warned us," the former US vice president and climate campaigner told
> delegates at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos.
>
> There are now forecasts that the North Pole ice cap may disappear entirely
> during summer months in as little as five years, Gore said.
>
> "This is a planetary emergency. There has never been anything remotely like
> it in the entire history of human civilisation. We are putting at risk all
> of human civilisation," he added.
>
> In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a
> report the size of three phone books on the reality and risks of climate
> change, its fourth assessment in 18 years.
>
> In October both Gore and the IPCC, comprising around 3,000 experts, jointly
> won a Nobel prize for their roles in highlighting climate change. Gore said
> a "little bit of progress" had been made at December's climate conference
> in
> Bali, Indonesia.
>
> He added though that there was a "big, large blank spot" in the road map
> agreed in Bali, reserved for the United States' environmental policy once a
> new president is elected in November and inaugurated in January.
>
> He said that the single most important policy that could be implemented
> would be a tax on carbon emissions that is applied across the whole world,
> "so that those who don't pay the price for carbon don't have an advantage
> over those who do."
>
> "I think it is really important from a climate change point of view to move
> away from the idea that personal actions from each of us represents the
> solution to this crisis.
>
> "These are important... but in addition to changing the light bulbs it is
> important to change the laws," Gore said.
>
> He stopped short of endorsing any US presidential candidate but said that
> "whoever is elected will have a better position" on climate change than the
> current administration of US President George W. Bush.
>
> Gore was appearing at Davos beside Africa activist and U2 frontman Bono in
> an effort to combine the fights against climate change and poverty.
>
> "The brunt of this climate crisis is going to be felt in the developing
> world. All your work... will be undone if you don't focus on this," Bono
> said.
>
> "It is clear that those people who have least created this climate
> crisis...
> are the least equipped to deal with it."
>
> Gore added: "I want to say to everyone who wants to solve the climate
> crisis, they have to take Bono's agenda on extreme poverty, on fighting
> disease and dealing with the HIV/AIDS crisis and make it an integral part
> of
> the world's effort to solve the climate crisis."
>
>
>
