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Experts say global warming can be tackled
By Jun Kwanwoo
AFP
SEOUL
Petroleumworld.com 09 14 07
Tiny Tuvalu appealed Thursday for help to save it from the waves as experts told a climate change conference in South Korea that the world must act fast to tackle the threat from global warming.
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus endorsed Tuvalu's message, saying rising temperatures are also "a matter of life and death" for low-lying nations like his own Bangladesh.
" Tuvalu is now one of the most vulnerable countries in the world," Tavau Teii, a deputy prime minister of the Pacific nation, told the symposium.
His country of 11,000 people, less than two metres (6.6 feet) above sea level, would be submerged in decades, he said.
" All countries must make an effort to reduce their emissions before it is too late for countries like Tuvalu," Teii said.He blamed greenhouse gas emissions for abnormally warming the ocean, acidifying its waters, causing coral reefs to die, decreasing fish stocks and making his island nation more vulnerable to storms.
Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, suggested a "traffic rule" under which products bear red, yellow or green markings to indicate the extent to which they came from renewable sources.
" For many people around the world this is an issue of concern but for us it's an issue of life and death," he said, urging global lifestyle changes to reduce greenhouse gases.
" Can we come to a decision, this simple decision globally? Each generation will make a pledge they will leave the world safer than we found it when we came to this world."
Han Seung-Soo, the UN secretary general's special envoy on climate change, called for a breakthrough in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
The United Nations is struggling to secure agreement on a new treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol on reducing emissions, which expires in 2012.
" There is no denying that negotiations must be advanced this December in Bali so that a comprehensive package is ready by 2009 and legally enforced by 2013," Han said.
He was referring to a UN climate change convention planned for the Indonesian island.
Han said existing initiatives or commitments are inadequate and called for "a comprehensive, re-energised and international response" this time.
Peter Bridgewater, former head of the Ramsar Convention on protecting global wetlands, said climate change should not be an intractable challenge given swift action.
" Can we fix it? Yes, we can. It is not unfixable. But it is later than we think and we have to get onto the task," Bridgewater told the forum.
" Think about it in advance, not wait until we have to react to something that is already changed. We are in climate change. It is happening. It is no longer possible to ignore it."
Alvin Toffler, futurist and author of several world best-sellers such as "The Third Wave," said the world could tackle the challenge.
" There is an opportunity now as we go to a third-wave, knowledge-based economy to create a far more intelligent use of our resources and far less pollution and other bad consequences," Toffler said.
In the future, he said, new knowledge and technology should play a key role in resolving the environmental and other challenges facing the world.
" The only way to reduce the pain, misery and poverty in many parts of the world is in fact to introduce the most useful, most productive new technology. You cannot solve the problem of poverty by improving shovels and sticks."
The conference was staged to promote a bid by the city of Yeosu to host an international expo in 2012. The city on South Korea's south coast is competing with Tangiers in Morocco and Poland's Wroclaw.
AFP 13 1557 GMT 09 07
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