Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Il cambiamento climatico e' in atto 2 - condoglianze per Armageddon

Britain: U.S. Must Help Avert Climate Catastrophe
2 hours, 8 minutes ago
 Science - Reuters
By Jeremy Lovell 
EXETER, England (Reuters) -  Britain, arguing that climate change is now 
unstoppable, urged the United States on Tuesday to sign up to 
life-saving cuts in greenhouse gas emissions as environmentalists warned 
of approaching Armageddon. 
 
 Opening a three-day scientific meeting to assess the threat of global 
warming, environment minister Margaret Beckett said it was vital 
Washington become more involved.
 "A significant impact is already inevitable -- we need to act now to 
limit the scale of warming in the future and avoid even worse effects," 
she said. "We would like America to engage more fully with these 
discussions about where we might go."
 America is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases like carbon 
dioxide (CO2), but rejects most scientific opinion that mankind is 
largely to blame for climate warming and has refused to join the Kyoto 
Protocol (news - web sites) on curbing emissions.
 Kyoto, which comes into force on Feb. 16, aims to cut CO2 emissions by 
developed states by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.
 President Bush (news - web sites) wants a less stringent target.
 Washington's aim is to cut the amount of greenhouse gas emissions for 
every dollar of economic output by 18 percent in 2012 compared to 2002. 
The economy is likely to grow at a faster pace, meaning overall 
emissions will rise.
 Beckett, who said there was no doubt human activity contributed to 
climate warming, said she believed there was no hope of persuading Bush 
to sign up to Kyoto.
 What was imperative, she added, was to persuade the American 
administration and public to examine what to do after 2012.
 Outspoken environmental scientist Steve Schneider from Stanford 
University, California, said he too did not expect Bush -- whose term 
ends in January 2009 -- to sign up to Kyoto, but that public pressure 
would force his successor to take action.
 "There are quite a lot of people already moving forward on this," he 
said, noting changing attitudes even within the business community.
 British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) has pledged to 
make battling climate change one of the top priorities for his 
presidency of the Group of Eight rich nations this year.
 WARNINGS
 Scientists at the meeting said not only were forests running out of the 
ability to be net absorbers of CO2, but that the capacity of oceans to 
be so was limited.
 Scientists have said that two degrees centigrade of warming is already 
expected.
 They have predicted that above that level the warming will push the 
planet into the unknown as ice caps melt, sea levels rise and weather 
patterns change at accelerating rates putting entire species and 
millions of people at risk.
 The World Wide Fund for Nature said at the weekend that disastrous 
climate change could kick in within 20 years, leading to possible 
wipeout in the Arctic of species like polar bears.
  
 A report by international experts last week described the climate as a 
ticking bomb, and preliminary results of one study said temperatures 
could rise by up to 11 degrees centigrade.
 Scientists from 30 nations at the meeting will try to define what 
constitutes "dangerous" levels of warming but will not make policy 
recommendations.

.......... però ci sono stati che si ritengono troppo indigenti per 
sottoscrivere quel pannicello caldo che é il protocollo di kyoto