DUNIA ALAMI CUACA PANAS - 2007

dexa

Dunia alami cuaca panas sepanjang 2007

Suhu melampau kerana pemanasan global, El Nino: Pakar

LONDON: Seorang pakar cuaca Britain, Profesor Phil Jones memberi amaran dunia bakal berdepan ancaman cuaca buruk, termasuk keadaan paling panas akibat gabungan pemanasan global dan fenomena El Nino, tahun ini.

Malah, cuaca panas itu bakal mengatasi rekod 1998 - tahun paling panas pernah dicatatkan.

Akhbar The Independent melaporkan semalam, amaran Jones yang juga Pengarah Unit Penyelidikan Cuaca, Universiti East Anglia, adalah antara empat ramalan saintis kanan yang 2007 bakal menjadi tahun getir menentukan reaksi terhadap ancaman cuaca itu dan kesannya ke atas manusia.

Jones berkata, aliran jangka panjang pemanasan global yang sudah dipersalahkan sebagai punca kemarau di Afrika Timur dan kecairan bungkah ais Artik, bakal diburukkan lagi dengan kehadiran El Nino - fenomena cuaca disebabkan peningkatan suhu lautan di Pasifik.

揋abungannya bakal membawa cuaca teruk di sekitar dunia dan menjadikan tahun ini lebih panas daripada 1998. Berkemungkinan juga suhu cuaca itu mengatasi 2006 yang disahkan bulan lalu sebagai paling panas di Britain sejak 1659 dan keenam paling panas dalam rekod dunia.

揈l Nino menjadikan dunia lebih panas dan kita sudah pun menyaksikan aliran peningkatan suhu dunia sebanyak 1 hingga 2 darjah Celsius setiap dekad.

揑ni sudah pasti meletakkan 2007 paling panas berbanding tahun lalu dan 12 bulan berikutnya mungkin paling panas pernah disaksikan dunia,

faraway

betul tu, even winter di canada tahun ni pun snow turun tak kerap sangat...............

redCeri^cet

LONDON (Reuters) - The coming year is set to be the hottest on record worldwide due to global warming
and the El Nino weather phenomenon, Britain's Meteorological Office said on Thursday.

After 2006 which was forecast last month to be the sixth warmest on record globally, the Met Office said
the combination of factors would push average temperatures this year above the record set in 1998.

"This new information represents another warning that climate change is happening around the world," said
Met Office scientist Katie Hopkins.
The world's ten warmest years have all occurred in the last 12 years, according to the United Nations' weather
agency.

The highly respected Met Office, which makes a global forecast every January with the University of East Anglia,
said it expected the world's average temperature to be 0.54 degrees Celsius about the 1961-1990 long-term
average of 14.0 degrees.

There is a 60 percent probability that 2007 will be as warm or warmer than the current warmest year, 1998, which
itself was 0.52 degrees above the long-term average it said in a statement.

Most scientists agree that temperatures will rise by between two and six degrees Celsius this century due mainly to
carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels for power and transport.

They say this will cause polar ice caps to melt and sea levels to rise and weather paterns to change bringing floods,
famines and violent storms, putting millions of lives at risk.

Former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern said in October that urgent action on global warming was vital,
and that delay would multiply the cost 20 times.

The Kyoto Protocol is the only global action plan to curb carbon emissions, but it expires in 2012, is rejected by the world's
biggest polluter -- the United States -- and does not bind booming emitters like China and India.

The Met Office said the established moderate El Nino, a phenomenon in the tropical Pacific blamed for disrupting weather
patterns, would continue for the first few months of 2007.

It noted that as there was a time lag between El Nino and its full effect on surface temperatures, its influence would
therefore felt well into the year.

It will coincide with what environmentalists say will be a very busy year for climate diplomacy.

Germany, which has an active climate change agenda, has taken over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union
and the year-long presidency of the Group of Eight industrialized nations.

Backed by Britain, which has pushed the climate crisis high up the world agenda, pressure is building for the G8 summit in Germany
in early June to set out a framework for discussions to take global action on climate change beyond Kyoto.

[ Last edited by  redCeri^cet at 4-1-2007 01:02 PM ]

rudz

Originally posted by redCeri^cet at 4-1-2007 01:00 PM
LONDON (Reuters) - The coming year is set to be the hottest on record worldwide due to global warming
and the El Nino weather phenomenon, Britain's Meteorological Office said on Thursday.

Sememangnya MET Office UK, LDEO, CPC dan SSES menjangka warm (highly percentage to dry condition) bagi tahun 2007 ( > +0.8'C secara anomaly).
Manakala model-model yang lain kesemuanya menjangka neutral condition spt. JMA, CLIPAR, ECMWF dll dengan secara keseluruhannya sedikit warm than normal (less than 0.8'C secara anomaly).
Bagi UK, tentulah depa cuba promote model yg depa bangunkan (Coupled General Circulation Model) tetapi how with other country??.. Malaysia bagaimana ???

redCeri^cet

LONDON - Deepening drought in Australia. Stronger typhoons in Asia. Floods in Latin America. British climate scientists
predict that a resurgent El Nino climate trend combined with higher levels of greenhouse gases could touch off a fresh
round of ecological disasters ? and make 2007 the world's hottest year on record.

"Even a moderate (El Nino) warming event is enough to push the global temperatures over the top," said Phil Jones,
director of the Climatic Research unit at the University of East Anglia.

The warmest year on record is 1998, when the average global temperature was 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit higher than
the long-term average of 57 degrees. Though such a change appears small, incremental differences can, for example,
add to the ferocity of storms by evaporating more steam off the ocean.

There is a 60 percent chance that the average global temperature for 2007 will match or break the record,
Britain's Meteorological Office said Thursday. The consequences of the high temperatures could be felt worldwide.

El Nino, which is now under way in the Pacific Ocean and is expected to last until May, occurs irregularly. But when
it does, winters in Southeast Asia tend to become milder, summers in Australia get drier, and Pacific storms can be
more intense. The U.N.'s Food Aid Organization has warned that rising temperatures could wreak agricultural havoc.

In Australia, which is struggling through its worst drought on record, the impact on farmers could be devastating.
The country has already registered its smallest wheat harvest in a decade, food prices are rising, and severe water
restrictions have put thousands of farmers at risk of bankruptcy.

In other cases, El Nino's effects are more ambiguous. Rains linked to the phenomenon led to bumper crops in Argentina
in 1998, but floods elsewhere in Latin America devastated subsistence farmers.
El Nino also can do some good. It tends to take the punch out of the Atlantic hurricane season by generating crosswinds
that can rip the storms apart ? good news for Florida's orange growers, for example.

"The short-term effects of global warming on crop production are very uneven," said Daniel Hillel, a researcher at
Columbia University's Center for Climate Systems Research. "I warn against making definitive predictions regarding any
one season's weather."

What is clear is that the cumulative effect of El Nino and global warming are taking the Earth's temperatures to record heights.

"El Nino is an independent variable," Jones said. "But the underlying trends in the warming of the Earth is almost certainly
a result of the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere."

Another more immediate effect of the rising temperatures may be political.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard is already under fire for refusing to link his country's drought to global warming.
In Britain, Friends of the Earth campaign director Mike Childs said the weather service's 2007 prediction "underlined the
gap between the government's rhetoric and action."

Other environmental groups said the new report added weight to the movement to control greenhouse gases.
It came a day after the weather service reported that 2006 had been Britain's warmest year since 1659, and three months
after Sir Nicholas Stern, a senior government economist, estimated that the effects of climate change could eventually cost
nations 5 percent to 20 percent of global gross domestic product each year.

Figures for 2006 are not yet complete, but the weather service said temperatures were high enough to rank among the top
10 hottest years on record.
"The evidence that we're doing something very dangerous with the climate is now amassing," said Campaign against Climate
Change coordinator Philip Thornhill.
"We need to put the energy and priority (into climate change) that is being put into a war effort," he said. "It's a political
struggle to get action done ? and these reports help."

redCeri^cet

Originally posted by rudz at 4-1-2007 02:13 PM
Malaysia bagaimana ???

xde fund and expert pun x ramai....rudz...x further study ke?

redCeri^cet

KUALA LUMPUR 4 Jan. - Malaysia berkemungkinan menghadapi musim tengkujuh lebih daripada sekali dalam setahun
pada masa akan datang, kata Menteri Sains, Teknologi dan Inovasi, Datuk Seri Dr. Jamaludin Jarjis.

Beliau berkata, perkara itu tidak mustahil berikutan perubahan cuaca dunia yang memperlihatkan pelbagai peristiwa
luar biasa berlaku.

Saya dimaklumkan, Switzerland yang banyak salji tidak ada sajli baru-baru ini dan salji tiruan terpaksa digunakan bagi
membolehkan pelancong bermain ski.

Cuaca di Rusia pada awal Disember sepatutnya 20 darjah celsius di bawah paras beku, tetapi baru-baru ini hanya lima
darjah celsius di bawah paras beku,? katanya kepada pemberita selepas mempengerusikan mesyuarat pasca kabinet
kementeriannya di sini, hari ini.

Sehubungan itu, Jamaludin berkata, kementerianya akan menjalankan kajian terperinci mengenai kesan perubahan cuaca
dunia kepada negara ini.

Ini jelas beliau, merangkumi kesannya dalam tempoh dua tiga bulan akan datang serta kesan bagi tempoh jangka panjang.

Beliau menambah, kajian yang akan dilakukan oleh pakar tempatan diketuai Profesor Fredalin Tanggang dari Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) itu penting bagi meningkatkan kesediaan kerajaan berhadapan dengan fenomena baru alam itu.

Saya akan bentangkan kepada Kabinet minggu depan unjuran-unjuran cuaca bagi dua tiga minggu akan datang kesan daripada
perubahan cuaca dunia ini, katanya.

Jamaludin berkata, jika kesan daripada perubahan cuaca dunia ini berlarutan, persediaan kerajaan juga perlu berubah.

Dahulu kita buat mesyuarat banjir pada bulan Oktober dan November sebagai persediaan menghadapi musim tengkujuh hujung
tahun. Itu pun hanya terhad kepada Pantai Timur dan Johor tidak pernah diambil kira sebab tidak ada banjir

Jadi unjuran-unjuran ini penting untuk persediaan kerajaan di peringkat daerah dan nasional, katanya.

Jamaludin berkata, banjir besar yang melanda Johor baru-baru ini juga sebahagian daripada kesan perubahan cuaca dunia.

Sewajarnya angin yang membawa hujan sekarang bertiup dari pantai timur tetapi kali ini disebabkan zon tekanan rendah
telah turun ke bawah, maka angin datang dari arah lain iaitu selatan Filipina dan bukannya utara Asia,  katanya.

[ Last edited by  redCeri^cet at 5-1-2007 09:35 AM ]

rudz

Originally posted by redCeri^cet at 5-1-2007 09:29 AM

xde fund and expert pun x ramai....rudz...x further study ke?

bahaya la kamu nie... bagi la peluang teman belasah u dan yg seangkatan dengan u dulu...
btw... ok bye...teman nak buat keje dulu...

redCeri^cet

oh....byk la rudz.....nk belasah org...hahaha...
jgn lmbt sgt...nnti kitaorg yg dpt dulu lak.......

rudz

Originally posted by redCeri^cet at 5-1-2007 09:46 AM
oh....byk la rudz.....nk belasah org...hahaha...
jgn lmbt sgt...nnti kitaorg yg dpt dulu lak.......

takpa... kalau ada peluang tu ...u all rembat la dulu....
teman dah semput.... x larat..

CRK

cuaca semakin panas cam dlm iklan tu.. "panasnya... panaslah..."

rudz

El Nino bawa kemarau buruk
Oleh Nasron Sira Rahim


Fenomena luar biasa dijangka melanda negara beberapa bulan lagi: Pakar





KUALA LUMPUR: Perkembangan sektor pertanian negara seperti ditekankan Rancangan Malaysia Kesembilan (RMK-9) dijangka bakal menghadapi cabaran terbesarnya apabila fenomena El Nino bermula tahun ini berkemungkinan menyebabkan kemarau paling teruk dalam sejarah.

Pengarah Pusat Perubahan Cuaca Universiti Malaya (UMCCA), Profesor Dr Khairulmaini Osman Salleh, berkata kemarau dijangka berlaku beberapa bulan lagi disifatkan 憀uar biasa

rudz

Dalam utusan hari ini...

Negara dijangka hadapi kemarau terburuk tahun ini
Oleh: THOMAS CHONG

KUALA LUMPUR 25 Jan.

redCeri^cet

Originally posted by rudz at 26-1-2007 07:58 AM
fenomena cuaca El-Nino yang membawa musim kemarau itu kini dikesan berlaku di Lautan Pasifik Selatan

El-Nino yang lebih kuat akan tercetus pada tahun ini

bakal menjadi lebih bertenaga ekoran pemanasan global sekarang

Ekoran kelewatan kemunculan fenomena itu, cuaca buruk yang bakal melanda Malaysia sudah pastinya teruk

Banyak model dikaji sebelum ramalan dibuat. Ramalan cuaca biasanya menunjukkan ketepatan antara 80 hingga 85 peratus

rudz, comment on these...

redCeri^cet

Originally posted by rudz at 26-1-2007 07:58 AM
Komen teman; Teman rasa mamat nie ada sedikit masalah (beliau juga yang mengatakan bahawa Batu Pahat adalah terletak dibawah MSL....
teman pun tak faham mana dia dapat data nie). Walaupun secara amnya teman bersetuju bahawa tahun 2007 nie merupakan tahun El-Nino,
namun ianya tidaklah sehebat seperti yang dinyatakan...
Pergantungan terhadap satu jenis model (Coupled General Circulation Model ) bagi teman merupakan satu kesilapan besar ...
beliau sepatutnya melihat kepada semua jenis model yang terdapat didunia dan kaji kekurangan dan kekuatan setiap model sebelum
mengeluarkan apa-apa pendapat

agreed.
from my observation, ramai academician yg mcm b'saing bg statement yg a bit exaggerate. Maybe utk buka mata bg pihak2 b'kenaan,
better prepare for the worst.

rudz

Originally posted by redCeri^cet at 26-1-2007 09:48 AM

Beberapa fakta yang beliau telah melakukan kesilapan;

a) Sejak tahun 1997 hingga sekarang dunia telah beberapa kali mengalami fenomena El-Nino cuma ianya setakat lemah dan moderate saja..
b) Fenomena El-Nino tidak semestinya bermaksud berlakunya kemarau di region ini... walaupun kebanyakkannya yes
c) Kesan daripada pemanasan global mempunyai kesan yang sedikit (relative kepada tahun2 sebelumnya) terhadap cuaca extreme yang berpanjangan tahun nie dan tahun lepas... Ianya lebih kepada kesan yang berlaku akibat daripada pergerakan long wave (rossby wave) yang bergerak pantas dan advection dari cold air yang berterusan... ada teman yang menjangka perkara ini akan berlaku sejak dari pertengahan tahun 2006 lagi akibat daripada heat wave yang berpanjangan dan teruk pada pertengahan tahun lepas...
d) bersetuju ngan pendapat  Prof. Madya Dr. Mastura Mahmud tidak menolak sepenuhnya pendapat UKMO tetapi pandangan model lain perlu diambil kira

dwbh163

2007 could be hottest year ever
By Sheralyn Tay, TODAY | Posted: 22 January 2007 1527 hrs
Just when you think the freakish weather has rained itself out, after a hot and sunny weekend, it's time to bring out the raincoats again - with the weatherman predicting thunderstorms for the first part of the week.

Have the skies gone mad? No, it's just a change in the air pressure over Siberia which - according to Associate Professor Dr David Higgitt from the National University of Singapore - "is driving surges of particularly violent rainstorms" towards Singapore.

The culprit? It's a toss up between global warming and the El Nino effect - the exact cause is too complicated to pinpoint, said Prof Higgett. But what is certain is, both phenomena will be shaping the world's weather in the year ahead, for better or - mostly - for worse.

While 2006 was the world's sixth warmest year on record, according to Climate Change Organisation director of Alliances and Operations, Mr Dan Lai, 2007 could be the worst yet.

"British climate scientists have said that the resurgent El Nino climate trend, combined with higher levels of greenhouse gases, could touch off a fresh round of ecological disasters and make 2007 the world's hottest year on record," Mr Lai said.

For Singaporeans, it means that when the wet weather finally clears, it could get very hot and very dry. Think 1997, the island's hottest year on record, when an extended dry bout caused water stocks to fall to two-thirds of total reservoir capacity.

Elsewhere, the new year has already seen ice-storms in California following a snow-less Christmas in New York, Australia's worst drought ever, and floods in Britain.

Yesterday, Britons learnt from naturalist Sir David Attenborough that their country's murderous heatwaves of 2003 would constitute a normal summer by 2050, and might even seem cool by 2080 - according to the findings of the most detailed climate projection ever undertaken.

This came just days after scientist Professor Stephen Hawking described climate change as a greater threat to the planet than terrorism, and scientists pushed the hand of the Doomsday Clock - a symbol of the risk of atomic cataclysm and of climate change - closer to midnight.

"We are learning how human activities and technologies are affecting climate systems in ways that may forever change life on Earth," said Prof Hawking.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report, slated for release on Feb 2, is likely to underscore this fact.

According to the New York Times, leaked drafts state that it is "more than 90 per cent likely" that global warming has been driven by the build-up of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases - a truism that has never been conclusively proven.

The economic impact of such climate change could be enormous - beside which the estimated US$50-million losses for Singapore from last year's haze would seem a pittance.

In October, former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern called for one per cent of global GDP to be spent immediately on tackling climate change - predicting that the failure to do so could shrink the world economy by 20 per cent by 2050.

Already, the economic backlash is sinking in with insurance companies in the US, which are - according to the latest issue of Newsweek --- doubling premiums, refusing to take new policies or even discontinuing existing ones for customers along the Eastern seaboard, including New York City. The reason? The increase in "extreme weather events" that are racking up huge property damages.

In the meantime, Singapore is gearing up just to deal with the next few months in the grip of El Nino, which is expected to dissipate by June. Given the big strides made in the last 10 years towards self-sufficiency in water resources, a shortage like 1997's is unlikely should the dry spell catch hold.

But if the heavy rains unexpectedly drag on instead, agencies told TODAY they are prepared. The Land Transport Authority, for example, will pay greater attention to infrastructure such as slopes. Measures in flood-prone areas are already underway by the Public Utilities Board, such as $12.8m project to enlarge the canal at Tanglin Halt.

Yet even if climatic anomalies do not hit Singapore directly, Mr Lai warned: "One must not forget the potential of indirect effect of climate change to Singapore -- especially when this tiny red dot depends on the resources of many countries around the world." - TODAY/st

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/253912/1/.html

Apakah kesediaan Malaysia kalo kemarau tersebut benar2 berlaku? Ada tak apa2 langkah berjaga2?
Aku akan beli & simpan tong air yg mungkin cepat kehabisan stok kalo kemarau berlaku.

redCeri^cet

U.N. climate panel says humans cause global warming

PARIS (Reuters) - The U.N. climate panel issued its toughest warning yet on Friday that human activities are to blame for
global warming and said that temperatures are set to rise sharply this century.
"Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the
observed increase in anthropogenic (human) greenhouse gas concentrations," said a final text seen by Reuters.

Global warming 'very likely' man-made

PARIS - The world's leading climate scientists, in their most powerful language ever used on the issue, said global warming is
"very likely" man-made, according to a new report obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

redCeri^cet

SAN FRANCISCO - The state's new attorney general is reaching out to automakers as he continues a federal lawsuit that seeks
millions of dollars for the greenhouse gases produced by their vehicles.
Attorney General Jerry Brown sent a letter Wednesday to attorneys for the six major automakers California is suing, asking to
meet personally with the chief executives of General Motors, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Toyota, Honda and Nissan.

"As I review the litigation and learn more about the disputes, I am struck by the need for California and the automakers to
work together to address the profound environmental challenges posed by global warming," Brown said in the letters.
In December, automakers filed a motion seeking to dismiss the lawsuit. After filing a response Thursday, Brown said in a San
Francisco news conference that he has confidence in the state's case.

"We think we have a solid case, and we're going to pursue it vigorously," Brown said. "The ultimate objective is ... to prevent
the catastrophic consequences of this global warming problem."
Brown, a former governor, presidential candidate and Oakland mayor who won the attorney general's race in November, inherited
the lawsuit from Treasurer Bill Lockyer, a fellow Democrat forced out of the AG job by term limits.
The suit, filed in September, marked the first time a state has sought monetary damages for the effects caused by Earth-warming
gases emitted by cars and trucks.

Brown said California must act to stop global warming because the federal government's response has been "profoundly timid."
Dave Barthmuss, a General Motors spokesman, said executives would consider meeting with Brown and were "always willing to
engage in an open and honest debate."
He said GM believes the lawsuit "lacks any merit," but that it is willing to collaborate with California to bring more emission-reducing
technologies to the road.

"General Motors and the entire automotive industry is already putting on the road advanced technologies and alternative-fuel
vehicles that are doing the kinds of things that California seems to want us to be doing," Barthmuss said.
California is the world's 12th largest producer of greenhouse gases, and more of those emissions come from vehicles than any
other source.

The lawsuit claims California will spend millions of dollars combating the changes that global warming is expected to bring to the state.
Warmer winters are expected to melt the Sierra snowpack earlier each year, lead to flooding in the Central Valley and threaten the
state's water supply for cities and farms.
Lawmakers already are debating how to ensure that California has enough water in the future, especially with the state's population
expected to hit 55 million by 2050.
Automakers also are challenging another California law, approved in 2002, that requires reductions in emissions from cars and light trucks.

[ Last edited by  redCeri^cet at 8-2-2007 09:58 PM ]

redCeri^cet

PARIS (AFP) - A decade or so ago, greens coined the term "climate refugees" to describe the future victims of global
warming. Today, experts say such refugees may already number in the millions and could reach 200 million by
century's end, stoking tensions and potential for conflict.

They point to Inuit communities literally undercut by melting ice in North America and Greenland, to the thirsty
peoples around central Africa's fast-shrinking Lake Chad and the tens of thousands displaced from New Orleans
by Hurricane Katrina. In the future, these ranks could be swollen by refugees fleeing flooded homes, parched
farmland or wrecked economies, from small island states in the Pacific to tropical Africa and the Mediterranean rim.
"The issue of environmental refugees promises to rank as one of the foremost human crises or our time,"
Norman Myers, an Oxford University professor. What constitutes a refugee can stoke emotive debate. Critics of the term say it is
a politically-charged misnomer, liable to hype or inaccuracy.

Climate refugees, they argue, should not be confused with people who flee their homes because of ecological stress
caused by over-population, pollution, abuse of freshwater or other acts of greed, ill judgement or bad planning.
In the case of Katrina, scientists acknowledge a single extreme weather event cannot by itself be pinned to a long-term
phenomenon, although they also point out that warmer seas provide raw fuel to make hurricanes more vicious.
But they also say that global warming is already amplifying environmental problems in many countries -- and in the
future, it will almost certainly help to push vulnerable communities over the edge.
"There is going to be a lot of population movement linked to climate," said Thomas Downing, director of the Stockholm
Environment Institute in Oxford. "Not all will be permanent refugees, but when you add climate to other forces that push
people beyond the capacity to cope, the numbers will increase."
A Red Cross and Red Crescent study in 2000 said 25 million people had left their homes because of environmental stress,
roughly as many as the refugees from armed conflict. Myers, one of the leading experts on the link between climate change
and forced migration, says the number could double by 2010 and reach as high as 200 million "once global warming
kicks in."

For fragile island nations such as Tuvalu in the South Pacific and Maldives in the Indian Ocean, global warming poses a
triple threat. Warmer seas spell a threat to the coral upon which islanders depend to attract both fish and tourists;
decreasing rainfall threatens drinking water supplies; and higher sea levels pose a threat by storm flooding or even
inundation. In the densely populated flood-plains of Bangladesh, rising seas will not only ruin fertile flood plains but
stoke the storm surges that periodically ravage the low-lying nation.

Drought or water stress is another problem. According to one study, the crippling heatwave that struck Western Europe in 2003 and left tens of thousands dead is likely to be commonplace by 2100, a scenario that is especially bleak for people on the Mediterranean coast and its hinterland. But even in cases where global warming is clearly to blame, there exists no clear mechanism to help its victims or provide legal redress against the polluters who caused the problem. "There is no legal recognition of people displaced by environmental causes" and no international treaty protecting them, explained Stephanie Long of Friends of the Earth International.  On Friday, the UN's top expert forum on global warming, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was to issue an update of the scientific knowledge for global warming. A draft IPCC document seen by AFP said Earth's surface temperature could rise by up to 4.5 C (8.1 F) or even higher if carbon dioxide (CO2) levels double over pre-industrial levels. On current trends, this pollution level could be reached early in the next half of this century. Sea levels would rise by between 28 and 43 centimetres (11.2-17.2 inches). Downing says the refugee issue is getting short shrift among both scientists and policymakers. Tens of millions of people without homes or jobs provides fuel for friction. "The IPCC should be assessing the big risks -- and refugees should be one of those issues, in so far as it has the capacity to affect world stability."

[ Last edited by  redCeri^cet at 8-2-2007 09:53 PM ]