The Great Barrier Reef could be dead in 20 years unless there is a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, a marine biology expert in Australia said in early April.
Rising sea temperatures were bleaching the coral and causing it to die, said Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg of the Australian Research Council Centre for Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.
At the same time, increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were turning the world’s oceans more acidic and preventing corals from forming their limestone skeletons, he said. Prof Hoegh-Guldberg and Professor Terry Hughes provided expert advice to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report was delayed due to objections from China, the US and Saudi Arabia.
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THE Great Barrier Reef could be dead in 20 years unless there is a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, a marine biology expert in
Rising sea temperatures were bleaching the coral and causing it to die, said Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg of the Australian Research Council Centre for Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.
At the same time, increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were turning the world’s oceans more acidic and preventing corals from forming their limestone skeletons, he said.
Prof Hoegh-Guldberg and Professor Terry Hughes provided expert advice to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report has now been released and was been delayed due to objections from
An international global warming conference has approved a report on the impacts of climate change after a contentious marathon session.
The environmental organisation WWF Switzerland warned that the Alps could be hit by heatwaves and droughts, and called for a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the worst consequences.
On Friday more than 100 nations belonging to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) agreed a final text in Brussels after all night disputes.
The report, the second of three being published by the IPCC, lists numerous consequences on people, the climate and ecosystems. It will guide policy in coming years on issues such as extending the UN’s Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012.
A warming world will place hundreds of millions of extra people at greater risk of food and water shortages and threaten the survival of thousands of species of plants and animals, the scientists said.
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31 December 2006, ondurag @ 7:43 am
In response to all those who commented on Marc Fischer’s “The Tyranny of Smoke-Free Living” Article; let me say one thing; if all the persons who are so much up in arms about smoke-free, they should work far harder at getting their governments and states to pass even harder laws on air pollution - not the joke laws that President Bush is making or rather, taking away; which, if they didn’t notice, is causing respiratory problems and even death especially in the very young and old.
Read where the US government said that Ground Zero posed no health problems whatsoever and now a large number of those fire officers and others who worked on the scene are now suffering serious lung illnesses:
http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/interference/ground-zero-air-pollution.html
As the report stated:
“In a series of public statements issued after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assured the people of New York that the air around ground zero was safe to breathe. Unfortunately, the agency lacked authoritative information on which to base these claims, and internal agency data conflicting with this reassuring public posture were ignored. The EPA’s press releases and public statements after 9/11 were vetted by then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, suggesting that the White House placed politics over science when communicating about ground zero’s air quality. Tragically, the impact of this public deception continues to be felt by thousands of rescue workers now plagued by chronic and crippling lung ailments.”
I not only conclude this but draw attention to the fact that this approach is the same general approach that is used in all matters concerning health and pollution. I acknowledge that since the IPCC 4th Assessment Report, the government does however, seem to be doing something about the problem of climate change. Cheers for that.