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Governments must and can save the climate
Mission Possible - Governments must and can save the climate
New images of rapidly melting glaciers released
Hamburg, Germany, November 2, 2006 - Greenpeace today released new photographs of rapidly melting glaciers in Europe to call upon the world's Governments attending next week's Climate Conference in Nairobi to 'wake up and smell the coffee'. The climate crisis is urgent: the science is indisputable, the moral obligation is unquestionable, and the economic imperative for urgent action is clear.
New photographic comparisons reveal the full extent of Alpine glacier retreat. The comparisons of glacier masses show that melting has accelerated dramatically in the past few years. On average, twice as much glacier mass melted between 1991 and 2004 than between 1961 and 1990. In the period from 2001 to 2004, glacier melting rates rose greatly. Greenland is now losing 240 cubic kilometres of ice each year - three times the rate before 2003.
"These new findings are a
yet another wake-up call. The glaciers are literally melting
before our very eyes, but the politicians are still doing
nothing but giving speeches", said Steve Sawyer, Greenpeace
International Climate & Energy Policy Advisor. "Governments
have lost their last excuse; they must stop their delaying
tactics and heed the call for urgent action to protect the
climate. We CAN prevent the worst of dangerous climate
change, but we need to act now,"
The spate of overwhelming evidence that has emerged over the last 12 months includes:
* New and compelling scientific evidence
pointing to the fact that climate change is upon us and
happening faster than anyone could have predicted; we are at
the threshold but we still have time to act. But that window
will close within the next 10-15 years.
* That the cost
of fighting climate change is easily affordable and orders
of magnitude less than the economic havoc that will be
wreaked by inaction.
* That developing countries are
already being hit first and worst by the impacts of climate
change, and the legal, moral and political obligation of the
industrialized world to take the lead has never been
clearer.
* Energy efficiency and renewable energy
technologies are rapidly maturing and with the right support
for massive deployment can and must play the major role in
decarbonising our economies.
"Governments need to agree a clear process in Nairobi so that post-2012 action to protect the climate with at least 30% reductions from industrialized countries and expansion of carbon markets to drive clean technologies to developing countries is finalized no later than 2008," said Sawyer. "The 163 governments that have signed up to the Kyoto Protocol need to put aside their short-term interests in favour of fighting this global menace. That is in everyone's long-term interest."
Ends
Greenpeace
Greenpeace exists because this fragile earth deserves a voice.
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organisation that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace.
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