Governments Have No More Excuses For Climate Inaction - UK Chief Scientist

[hatrack]

Governments around the world need to act now to tackle global warming and a destructive surge in storms and floods over coming decades, the senior scientist advising the British government said Thursday. In a presentation to mark World Meteorological Day, David King, the chief scientific adviser to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, highlighted recent disasters to demonstrate that authorities tended to either ignore warnings from scientists or were inadequately prepared.

"Governments today ignore the advice of science at the peril of their own populations," King told the audience at the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). For climate change, "the science is there -- you need to act now because in order to be prepared the investment has to take place over a long period of time," he explained. He suggested that experience from the tsunami which devastated Indian Ocean coastlines in 2004, or the destruction wrought by hurricane Katrina on the US city of New Orleans last year, underlined the value of scientific evidence and the need for proper protection mechanisms.

"We need a system where the scientific capacity can be mined into, and presented directly to heads of state, the people in responsible positions, to make the right decisions." King called climate change "the biggest new challenge facing us in the 21st century" and "possibly the biggest challenge since we developed our civilisation".

There was no longer much doubt about its cause -- carbon dioxide emissions caused by burning fossil fuels like oil and coal for energy -- and its impact, he added. "We're in a situation where the scientific community has reached a very broad consensus on this and now we need government action," King underlined. "We have two actions: one is calling mainly on nation by nation to prepare to adapt to the climate changes ahead, and the second is to mitigate, that's going to help our grandchildren."

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Governments_Must_Heed_Warnings_On_Climate_Change_Now_UK_Chief_Scientist.html

[Lautremont]

1. I have a feeling that bushco will have some lame excuse ready nonetheless;

which is not merely bewildering and unhelpful, but adds to the hot air being pumped into the atmosphere.

[hatrack]

2. What's that strange tingling sensation? Why, it's my Sixth Sense!

And my Sixth Sense is telling me that we'll soon be hearing many more calls for study, particularly as we approach Earth Day 2006.

As I understand it, The Littlest President will have a dedicated Earth Day event at which he will either (A) be videotaped standing next to a tree calling for more studies or (B) be videotaped standing in front of some body of water while calling for more studies.

What does YOUR Sixth Sense tell you?

[Lautremont]

4. My Sixth Sense concurs with yours.

I see multiple repititions of the word "stewardship," which apparently is a synonym for "ruthless exploitation," spoken before a backdrop of trees and sparkling water. This will be followed by the invocation of one or more of the opposite-name programs, like "Clear Skies Initiative" or some other nonsense.

[kenny blankenship]

3. Why yes they have an answer: the Righteous need not fear the wrath of God!

If God kills some people, it's because they were wicked, as in Noah's Flood. (Actually "Noah's Flood" is how deceitful seculars refer to it. It was really GOD's Flood.) Or if God takes away some people who are good, it's because He wants them to live with Him in Heaven, as we always say when some innocent Christian child passes away due to disease or an accident).
The Righteous and the Saved have nothing to fear from so-called Global Warming, or Bird-flu, or hurricanes, because these things will either not hurt us, or else they are merely a convenient exit, expediting us into the arms of God. What the Righteous have to fear is being judged insufficiently vigilant against the Unbeliever, the Blasphemer, the Unnatural--and the worst of these--the Liberal.

So yes, the answer is the same ready answer it's always been: God always gets the Wicked (and if God gets me, it's because He wants me to live in Heaven) It doesn't matter what the thermometer reads or how high the sea-level rises, it's the Will of God, and there's nothing you can do to stop it.
Thanks for asking!

[ramapo]

5. The current administration will be history

In just a few years Bush II will be gone so they don't really care what will happen in 10,20, or 50 years. They just hope that there are still a few Democrats left to blame. The Democrats will probably still be busy trying to match the Republicans in what has become their gutless, useless style.