(Thumbnail image: Flickr user lady_lbrty)
Just ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon traveled with experts to the Arctic to take a look for himself at the effects of global warming. His prognosis was not good.
Worldfocus reported on his visit:
“…our foot is stuck on the accelerator and we are heading toward an abyss.”
Media sources are in consensus that the threat of global warming is real but they point to different effects of the climate change.
We look at reports from World Focus, CNN, TIME, Insider Medicine and Sky News on the current state of global warming effects around the globe.
The backdrop of the December conference is increasingly gloomy, CNN says, with academic papers and experts
“…predicting dramatic and catastrophic changes to the world -- unless we act right now.”
“Emissions have risen in Japan by 9% since 1990. Emissions from transportation, commerce and homes contribute most.”
“With political parties, industries, sectors and environmental groups all backing different groups it is clear the debate won’t end with Japan’s 2012 Kyoto Protocol.”
TIME reports climate change is melting the glaciers of the world's highest mountains, in Nepal’s Himalayas, affecting millions downstream.
“What effects on local yak herders can affect Glacier-fed rivers in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Less snow and smaller glaciers mean less melting water.”
Global Warming could also affect global health, according to a report from insidermedicine.
“…thousands of researchers are gathering at the meeting of the American society for microbiology to debate the effects of global warming on infectious diseases. Global warming is expected to increase the number of those infected with malaria and extend the duration of the flu season.”
Climate change is not an abstract thing of the future, says UK’s Sky News. It reports from, what it calls, the frontline of the dangers of climate change in Bangladesh.
“When we think about climate change we think of it as some theoretical prospect of the future. It’s not. It’s here. It’s now. It’s facing these people in their daily lives.”
As we see more evidence of effects of global warming do you think the debate is going in the right direction? Do you think the December conference will give us a plan of action to tackle climate change?
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