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Nordic nations – Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland – are adding their voice to a growing worldwide consensus by sounding the alarm about an increase in the rate at which Arctic ice is melting: the thaw, caused by global warming, could soon be irreversible. With an eye on the upcoming Bali Conference on Climate Change the five nations (who all have Arctic territories) appealed to all governments to agree as soon as possible to a more far-reaching UN plan to curb greenhouse gases as a follow up to the Kyoto Protocol.
“The Arctic and the world cannot wait any longer,” environment ministers from the five nations said in a joint statement after talks in Oslo. “The climate is hurtling towards a turning point after which irreversible processes will have been set in motion,” they said of the Arctic thaw.
The ministers pointed up the fact that the ice on the Arctic Ocean shrank to 4.13 million square km (1.6 million square miles) by September 2007; this is the smallest it has been since satellite records began in 1979, and far worse than the low point in 2005. Naturally, the ice is now expanding as winter approaches, but is nevertheless smaller than in previous years.
The melt threatens the livelihoods of indigenous hunting peoples and wildlife such as polar bears and seals. The large-scale thaw is blamed by the UN climate panel on heat-trapping gases emitted by burning fossil fuels.
Swedish Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren warned that the melting of Arctic ice might already have reached a point of no return. “We may have passed the tipping point,” he said.
The Nordic nations declared that the conference of environment ministers in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007 must reach agreement on “tangible measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases”. The Bali talks are meant to initiate two-year negotiations on a new climate treaty to take the place of the Kyoto Protocol with an eye to finalizing agreement at a UN conference in Copenhagen in late 2009.
“The Arctic and the world cannot wait any longer,” environment ministers from the five nations said in a joint statement after talks in Oslo. “The climate is hurtling towards a turning point after which irreversible processes will have been set in motion,” they said of the Arctic thaw.
The ministers pointed up the fact that the ice on the Arctic Ocean shrank to 4.13 million square km (1.6 million square miles) by September 2007; this is the smallest it has been since satellite records began in 1979, and far worse than the low point in 2005. Naturally, the ice is now expanding as winter approaches, but is nevertheless smaller than in previous years.
The melt threatens the livelihoods of indigenous hunting peoples and wildlife such as polar bears and seals. The large-scale thaw is blamed by the UN climate panel on heat-trapping gases emitted by burning fossil fuels.
Swedish Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren warned that the melting of Arctic ice might already have reached a point of no return. “We may have passed the tipping point,” he said.
The Nordic nations declared that the conference of environment ministers in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007 must reach agreement on “tangible measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases”. The Bali talks are meant to initiate two-year negotiations on a new climate treaty to take the place of the Kyoto Protocol with an eye to finalizing agreement at a UN conference in Copenhagen in late 2009.
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Cut
29.12.2007 13:53
Ant
Homepage:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL3166930620071031
Survey
29.12.2007 14:27
CH
Homepage:
http://www.shareintl.org
First hand
29.12.2007 18:43
At the same time this critical commentator verifies this news item as true. In other words the only point he is making is that there is indeed a reporter in the environment, and that he reads Reuters.
I myself know these news items first hand and this article seems to have been borrowed so that we may know about it in time. I am no professional reporter, because I see the news as more important than the news article based on it, and I believe I am fair enough in my limited amount of time available, sometimes more so perhaps than the professional correspondent who is still writing.
The comment is still based on the above article, and this reveals an important news item as well.
The world was neither created by the Bible, nor by the Qur'an, nor by the Evolution of Species of Charles Darwin. A reporter creates no news but passes it on.
I thank you for your confirmation. Indymedia was established for exactly such reasons as to get rid of unnatural buffers that are sometimes more complex than apparent at first sight.
Many naive people believe the news as a reality in itself and vote for polticians because they say: "He will know best; he is a professional!"
"He" is often: a professional manipulator. This is partly why there are so many problems.
KH