Ice Core Analysis Adds to Climate Concern

This article from Environment News Service: details the release of disturbing new information from the latest antarctic core analysis: "The new ice core analysis was released at the British Association for the Advancement of Science's Science Festival in Norwich, a public gathering of more than 300 of the United Kingdom's leading scientists and engineers.

In her opening message at the festival, BA President Frances Cairncross warned that climate change is inevitable and the world must be ready to adapt.

'Adaptation policies have had far less attention than mitigation, and that is a mistake,' said Cairncross, who is also chair of Britain's Economic and Social Research Council. 'We need to think now about policies that prepare for a hotter, drier world, especially in poorer countries. That may involve, for instance, developing new crops, constructing flood defenses, setting different building regulations, or banning building close to sea level.'

Improved international cooperation is vital, Cairncross said, but the Kyoto Protocol is insufficient to address the reality of climate change.

Policymakers and educators must persuade 'this generation to accept sacrifices on behalf of posterity' and convince all nations to share the burden, she told delegates.

This means 'persuading countries that will gain from climate change, or lose little, to take action not on behalf of their own grandchildren but of the descendants of people in other nations,' Cairncross said.

'Of course, there are important areas where no adaptation is possible,' she says. 'We cannot relocate the Amazon or insulate coral reefs and so we need mitigation too. But the government could and should put in place an adaptation strategy right away.'"


Hard to put an adaptation strategy in place for a phenomenon about which so many in the administration are in denial. When the corporate puppets are calling something a hoax, how can we be expected to have a coherent policy? Then again, why start with climate change? We don't seem to have a coherent policy for the war in Iraq, immigration, health care, or any other issue of any real meaning to most Americans. It's not as if there have been any recent examples of climatological disaster in this country. People along the coast displaced? Nope, doesn't ring a bell. (sorry for the sarcasm, but I get snarky when I'm PISSED OFF!!!!!!!!!)