Global warming 'an emergency'
2007-11-10 19:02
Eduardo Frei Base - With
prehistoric Antarctic ice sheets melting beneath his feet, UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for urgent political
action to tackle global warming.
Antarctica has warmed faster than anywhere else on Earth in
the last 50 years, making it a fitting destination for Ban, who
has made climate change a priority since he took office earlier
this year.
"I need a political answer. This is an emergency and for
emergency situations we need emergency action," he said during
Friday's visit to three scientific bases on the barren
continent, where temperatures are their highest in about 1 800 years.
Antarctica's ice sheets are nearly 2.5km thick on average - five times the height of the Taipei 101 tower, the world's tallest building. But scientists say they are already showing signs of climate change.
Satellite images show the West Antarctic ice sheet is
thinning and may even collapse in the future, causing sea
levels to rise.
Amid occasional flurries of snow, Ban flew over melting ice
fields in a light plane, where vast chunks of ice the size of
six-storey buildings could be seen floating off the coast after
breaking away from ice shelves.
"All we've seen has been very impressive and beautiful,
extraordinarily beautiful," he told reporters. "But at the same
time it's disturbing. We've seen ... the melting of glaciers."
It was the first visit by a UN chief to Antarctica.
Ban is preparing for a UN climate change conference in
Bali, Indonesia, in December, which is expected to kick off
talks on a new accord to curb carbon emissions after the Kyoto
Protocol expires in 2012.
Ban has focused strongly on the environment and held a
climate change summit at the United Nations on the eve of the
annual General Assembly gathering of world leaders.
On Saturday, he is expected to continue his South American
tour at Chilean national park Torres del Paine, where Andean
glaciers are also being affected by global warming.
He will then visit Brazil, a leading force in developing
biofuels from crops as an alternative to fossil fuels. Fears
about climate change have fueled a boom in biofuels.
Despite the controversy of diverting food crops into fuel
production, Ban has said alternative energy sources are vital
to addressing climate change.
Antarctica - a continent with only about 80 000 temporary
residents - is 25% bigger than Europe and its ice
sheets hold some 90% of the fresh water on the Earth's
surface.