Taipei Times /April 7, 2007
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Climate change report leaves scientists ruffled
AP, BRUSSELS
"The authors lost."－a scientist who helped in the drafting of the climate change
report
An international global warming conference approved a report on climate change
yesterday, chairman Rajendra Pachauri said, after a contentious marathon session that
saw angry exchanges between diplomats and scientists who drafted the report.
"We have an approved accord. It has been a complex exercise," Pachauri told
reporters after an all-night meeting of the International Panel on Climate Change.
Several scientists objected to the editing of the final draft by government negotiators,
but in the end agreed to compromises. However, some scientists vowed never to take
part in the process again.
"The authors lost," one scientist said. "A lot of authors are not going to engage in the
IPCC process anymore. I have had it with them," he said on condition of anonymity
because the proceedings were supposed to remain confidential.
A reporter, however, witnessed part of the final meeting.
The climax of five days of negotiations was reached when the delegates removed
parts of a key chart highlighting devastating effects of climate change that kick in
with every rise of 1oC. There was also a tussle over the level of confidence attached
to key statements.
The US, China and Saudi Arabia raised the most objections to the phrasing, most
often seeking to tone down the certainty of some of the more dire projections.
The final report is the clearest and most comprehensive scientific statement to date on
the impact of global warming mainly caused by human-induced carbon dioxide
pollution. It predicts that up to 30 percent of species face an increased risk of
extinction if global temperatures rise 2oC above the average of the 1980s and 1990s.
Taipei Times /April 7, 2007
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Areas that now suffer a shortage of rain will become even drier, adding to the risks of
hunger and disease, and the world will face heightened threats of flooding, severe
storms and the erosion of coastlines, it said.
Will of heaven?
Falun Gong practitioners in Ilan County yesterday call on Chinese to withdraw from the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP). The two in the center are dressed as ``heavenly generals,'' to signify that the
CCP will soon be toppled by the will of heaven.
Taipei Times /April 7, 2007
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