Climate Change: The Challenge of the Century?

By Stephen Leahy

Apr 6 (IPS) – Climate change is already altering the Arctic, sub-Saharan Africa, small islands and Asia’s river deltas, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported Friday in Brussels.

And these observed impacts will only increase and widen in the years to come, along with some nasty surprises as the human race’s global climate-altering experiment rapidly gains momentum.

Scientists and environmental activists say the overarching question — and the challenge of the century — is what will we do about it?

“The irritating thing is that we have all the tools at hand to limit climate change and save the world from the worst impacts,” said Lara Hansen, chief scientist of the World Wildlife Fund’s Global Climate Change Programme.

“The IPCC makes it clear that there is a window of opportunity, but that it’s closing fast. The world needs to use its collective brains to think ahead for the next 10 years and work together to prevent this crisis,” Hansen said in a statement.

“Our societies are dependent upon nature, yet we have undermined it for centuries. Now, with climate change, we are attacking the very basis of the natural world — putting us all at risk,” she said.

John Seed, an environmental writer and lecturer, and founder of the Rainforest Information Centre in Australia, agrees. “We don’t need more knowledge, what is missing is passion,” he said.

More than 93 percent of Australians said in a recent poll that they are worried about climate change, Seed told IPS, adding that, “Australians have never had that kind of consensus about anything.”

But very, very few Australians are doing anything about the problem, he says.

For full story see Climate Change: The Challenge of the Century?

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