28 September 2005
"CLIMATE CHANGE THE MOST SERIOUS ISSUE FACING HUMANKIND" SAYS SCIENTIST AND AUTHOR
Climate change is the most serious issue facing humankind, climate Australian scientist and author Tim Flannery said recently when launching his latest book "The Weather Makers: The History and Future Impact of Climate Change".
"Destructive hurricanes such as those that have pounded the Gulf of Mexico recently could become more frequent" he predicted. "As the planet warms, of course a lot of heat transfer is going into the ocean, so we have the potential to generate massive storms like this."
"Many people fear that we're seeing a permanent shift to a much more active atmosphere where these sort of storms will be now a permanent feature of life."
"I don't think it's an exaggeration to suggest that these big changes in the atmosphere can threaten civilisation as we know it."
The warning is the latest of similar warnings expressed by members of the scientific community just as the extreme weather conditions experienced in southern USA is the most recent of the signs that the world is heading towards an ecological disaster.
Meteorologists expressed amazement recently at the first ever hurricane recorded in the South Atlantic off Brazil where it has always been assumed the water was too cold for such an event to occur see the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research website.
When this is considered along with the fact that parts of Australia continue to experience the worst drought on record, the rate of melting of the polar ice caps has recently been found to be far greater than previously realized, and that in 2003 Europe experienced its worst heat wave on record resulting in an extra 40,000 deaths, it seems difficult to deny as some governments continue to do, that global warming due to human activity is a major problem requiring urgent action at the global level.
Australian Conservation Foundation president Professor Ian Lowe has also warned, in a new book called "A Big Fix", that civilisation faces ecological destruction.
"The warnings from scientists are urgent and unequivocal: our civilisation is unwittingly stepping in front of an ecological lorry that is about to flatten us," he said in a statement.
"We are using resources future generations will need, damaging environmental systems and compromising social stability by increasing the gap between rich and poor."
"In short, we are consuming the future. Without a radical re-thinking of the way we currently live, our society is doomed."
"Destructive hurricanes such as those that have pounded the Gulf of Mexico recently could become more frequent" he predicted. "As the planet warms, of course a lot of heat transfer is going into the ocean, so we have the potential to generate massive storms like this."
"Many people fear that we're seeing a permanent shift to a much more active atmosphere where these sort of storms will be now a permanent feature of life."
"I don't think it's an exaggeration to suggest that these big changes in the atmosphere can threaten civilisation as we know it."
The warning is the latest of similar warnings expressed by members of the scientific community just as the extreme weather conditions experienced in southern USA is the most recent of the signs that the world is heading towards an ecological disaster.
Meteorologists expressed amazement recently at the first ever hurricane recorded in the South Atlantic off Brazil where it has always been assumed the water was too cold for such an event to occur see the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research website.
When this is considered along with the fact that parts of Australia continue to experience the worst drought on record, the rate of melting of the polar ice caps has recently been found to be far greater than previously realized, and that in 2003 Europe experienced its worst heat wave on record resulting in an extra 40,000 deaths, it seems difficult to deny as some governments continue to do, that global warming due to human activity is a major problem requiring urgent action at the global level.
Australian Conservation Foundation president Professor Ian Lowe has also warned, in a new book called "A Big Fix", that civilisation faces ecological destruction.
"The warnings from scientists are urgent and unequivocal: our civilisation is unwittingly stepping in front of an ecological lorry that is about to flatten us," he said in a statement.
"We are using resources future generations will need, damaging environmental systems and compromising social stability by increasing the gap between rich and poor."
"In short, we are consuming the future. Without a radical re-thinking of the way we currently live, our society is doomed."
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