It is shocking that such breathless, 'impending catastrophe' style reporting reaches the front pages of quality newspapers - as in this example from The Independent (Death Knell of the Kyoto Treaty, published on 3 December 2003): In large areas of the world, agriculture may become impossible; other parts may become uninhabitable because of flooding, hurricanes, increased disease, or the disappearance of the land. This will take place while the Earth's population is rising towards 10 billion or more. Equally surprising is how seriously many are taking the climate change threat without questioning the science and politics behind it all. Tragically, many in the nuclear industry have gone along with this. Since 1988, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has produced three increasingly alarmist reports with climate projections for the world in 2100, predicting carbon dioxide emissions relentlessly increasing with economic growth. Using current trends, in 2100 the IPCC estimates that global temperatures will rise by up to 6℃ and sea levels by up to nearly a metre.
展开▼
