Timor Leste citizens suffer effects of climate change.
 
Increasingly high sea levels and severe weather are affecting Timor Leste’s society in many ways. Throughout all of Timor and other parts of Indonesia, farmers are reaping only about half the normal crop yields due to unstable climate conditions. As a result, thousands of children are severely malnourished.

At the Bangkok Climate Change Conference currently taking place at the United Nations in Thailand, Supreme Master Television correspondents spoke with Mr. Adao Soares Barbosa, National Directorate for Environmental Services, on Timore Leste’s situation:
 
Mr. Adao Soares Barbosa, National Directorate for Environmental Service, member of United Nations working group on climate change: As you know our country is the newest country of the world, so we need economic scenarios and also we need to sustain our environment and ecosystem. Climate change already impacted our country in terms of water resources, agriculture production and also loss of biodiversity and loss of our equipment, especially for the those areas that are vulnerable to the drought and flooding and also sea level rising.

VOICE: Through developments in sustainable energy, there is hope that such island nations as Timor Leste will be able to minimize the harmful effects of global warming.

Mr. Adao Soares Barbosa: It seems like in energy sector is still not well developed in our country, but for the future we need to develop the renewable energy use in Timor-Leste so that we can save our world.

VOICE: We are grateful for government leaders in Timor Leste and elsewhere whose concern about the broad effects of global warming is moving them to action for the survival of their people. May Heaven protect residents of all coastal regions with safety and comfort during these changing times.

West Timore food security: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/asia-pacific/6919730.stm,
Indonesia climate change: http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0430-indo.html ,


Austrian glaciers show marked retreat. 

Austria's Alpine Club, has measured the glaciers in Austria for the past 115 years.  In the 2006-2007 period, based on the 93 glaciers surveyed in Austria, a shrinkage of 22 meters on average was observed.  Winter temperatures during this period were also 3.2 degrees Celsius higher than normal, and April 2007 was 5.5 degrees higher than normal.

http://www.physorg.com/news126078526.html

American Public Health Association inaugurates global warming awareness program.
 
The goal of the program is to alert the nation about the health catastrophes that will ensue if climate change is not curbed. Examples cited include heat stress and heatstrokes from higher temperatures in the Midwest and Northwest, especially affecting the elderly; disease resulting from greater rains in the Northwest; water shortages in the Southwest; reduced crop yields in the Great Plains states, and tainted water and food supplies due to longer storm surges in the Southeast Atlantic and Gulf Coast region. A statement released by the campaign cautioned, “There is a direct connection between climate change and the health of our nation. Yet, few Americans are aware of the very real consequences of climate change on the health of our communities, our families and our children."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-03-31-global-warming-health_N.htm (lovely D28)

IPCC member Dr. Adil Najram warns of climate change effects in developing nations.
 
In a recent talk given in his native Pakistan, Dr. Adil Najram, a professor at Boston University in the USA and a member of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), highlighted the effects of climate change such as food and water shortages already experienced in developing countries like Pakistan. Dr. Najram further stated that if climate change is not immediately addressed, these problems will only worsen over time.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C04%5C01%5Cstory_1-4-2008_pg5_16 , http://thepost.com.pk/ShortNews.aspx?shortid=5688&catid=2


Brazil’s deforestation may lead to Amazon desertification.

After Brazil announced that the country’s deforestation would double this year, ecologist Daniel Nepstad at US-based Woods Hole Research Center expressed his concern that the forest is reaching a tipping point. Nearly 20% of global greenhouse gases originate from deforestation, with cleared lands being used primarily to graze livestock or raise food crops. More recently, forest lands have been cleared to grow biofuel crops.

http://www.theledger.com:80/article/20080331/NEWS/803310336/1374 


Arrival of Himalayan wild fruit signals global warming.

In the markets of Uttarakhand, northern India, the popular Himalayan wild fruit ‘Kaafal’ has been noted by traders of its month-early arrival and is being sold at four times the normal price. Eminent ecologist and vice-chancellor of HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar, Garhwal, said, “A species can fruit early in a direct response to warming.” Glacier retreat, early flowering and leaf production as well as mosquito presence at higher altitudes are all examples of drastic climate change effects in the Himalayas.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/015200804011141.htm,

On February 28, satellites detected an ice block disconnecting from Antarctica’s Wilkins ice shelf, which later led to the crumbling descent of 406 square kilometers of ice into the ocean.

Concerned by this unusual scale of disintegration, Dr. Ted Scambos, lead glaciologist at the University of Colorado in the US, invited an international team of scientists to observe the event more closely. He recently spoke with Supreme Master Television’s correspondents in Colorada, to explain the ice shelf’s significance in relation to the greater effects of climate change.

Dr. Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, USA

Dr. Ted Scambos, lead glaciologist who monitored the Wilkins ice shelf disintegration: What’s not normal is to see melt ponds on the surface, no sea ice in front of the ice shelf edge. And this sudden breakup, not just in one big piece, but crumbling, disintegrating, absolutely blowing itself up within just a few weeks. The other thing is that the ice shelf doesn’t recover from it. There’s no regrowth, there’s no new shelf that starts to push out in the aftermath of one of these events.

VOICE: Dr. Scambos further explains that while scientists always knew that ice shelves are good indicators of warming temperatures in the air and water, what greatly surprised them was just how fast the system could respond. What’s clear is that a difference does exist between natural Antarctic ice behavior and that being caused by warming ocean waters.

Dr. Ted Scambos: In the poles, anybody who works in polar science, nobody questions whether we are in a warming world, we’re in trouble, because we see it in our fields every year. And ice plates that have been there for 10,000 years, since the end of the last ice age, are gone, because the climate got that much warmer, and just in the last 20 or 30 years it got that much warmer.

VOICE: Dr. Scambos stresses the need to take quick action in response to global warming.

Dr. Ted Scambos: The problem is that, if take the view of “we’re going to try to put the brakes on this, and we take a whole century to do that.” The timescale for the Earth recovering naturally is very long, and we will be in for a lot of change in terms of how it impacts human lives, for several centuries. Unless we take the attitude that we really need an aggressive plan to address greenhouse gases. Unless we take that attitude, we should be thinking about adaptation rather than mitigation. And I for one would like to see us end this.

VOICE: Arctic scientists echo the sentiments of other researchers and international experts on climate change: The alarming rates of natural changes indicate that we are running out of time to respond.

Dr. Ted Scambos: There is a problem to the discussion of greenhouse gases, especially to the public, because all the forecasts tend to go to the year 2100. As if it’s some magic time that all the events come to a halt. That’s not the case. There is no limit to how warm the world will get, unless we set a limit. It’s paramount that people everywhere understand: eventually it’s up to us to stop this. It won’t stop until we do it.

VOICE: The Wilkins ice shelf will continue to be monitored, especially in the next Antarctic summer’s melt season. We thank Dr. Scambos and all scientists who are urgently studying the immediate effects of climate. With God's grace, may our global community act quickly to restore our ecological equilibrium for our present and future generations. Please tune in to Supreme Master Television for this upcoming exclusive interview with Dr. Ted Scambos of the US National Snow and Ice Date Center on current studies of Antarctic ice and global warming.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4452970a7693.html

ok, that's it :) thanks br