Ten years to prevent catastrophe

Katrina made the Bush Administration take climate change seriously. Fortunately we have had no Katrina-like episode in this country, but the warnings are plain to see.

In recent months scientists across the world have reported compelling evidence that we face dramatic melting of Arctic sea ice, a shutdown of global ocean circulation systems in the North Atlantic, huge methane releases from melting permafrost in Siberia and Alaska, more violent hurricanes worldwide, and “mega-droughts” from northern China to the American West. Already the World Health Organisation estimates that 160,000 people die each year from the impacts of climate change, notably malaria, dysentery and malnutrition.

..Yet climate disaster is still only in its very early stages: this is not a linear but a dynamic process of intensification. Indeed, at certain “tipping points”, emissions of greenhouse gases could leap unpredictably. The impact of this on human civilisation is at this stage unknowable.

Times Online