'Ignoring climate change will not make it go away'

[dArKeR]

Inquiries from scientists at the Global Change Symposium in Kirstenbosch in Cape Town on Wednesday on the whereabouts of a report completed three years ago raised queries into whether the government has been suppressing potentially worrying information on the consequences of climate change in South Africa.

The SA National Country Study Programme was completed in 1999. It aimed to provide a national inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, and to determine how climate change would impact on biodiversity, agriculture, and water supply in South Africa.

This report was apparently published on the web for a brief period of time, before the administrators were requested to dismantle the website. No one who has approached the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (Deat) has been able to get hold of a copy of the report.

Scientists who were involved in the programme also found their way blocked when they tried to inform the public about the consequences of climate change.

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=22830