Environmentalists demand action to fight global warming
From hurricanes that are growing more fierce, to coastline erosion due to rising water levels, the southeastern United States is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change because of its well-developed shoreline, officials told a news conference Monday.
The delegates noted rising temperatures were causing glaciers to melt and sea levels to rise, warming the oceans and making hurricanes more potent, developments long cited by climate change experts as the likely consequences of global warming.
“There is nothing good that comes to the Southeast from global warming pollution,” Stephen Smith, director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, told an international teleconference from Montreal. “Coastal communities are literally on the front lines of what we have seen with these hurricanes, storm surge and sea-level rise.”
The delegation called on President Bush’s administration to follow the lead of local governments trying to curb greenhouse gas emissions to protect the earth’s atmosphere.
“We need strong leadership; we’re not getting it from the (U.S.) delegation sent to Montreal,” said Smith, whose family lost a home to Hurricane Ivan in Pensacola, Fla.
The United States, which produces one-fourth of the world’s pollution, has refused to join the Kyoto Protocol, resisting any binding commitments to curb global warming by capping industrial emissions of greenhouse gases, saying it would harm the U.S economy.
Bush instead has called for an 18 percent reduction in the U.S. growth rate of greenhouse gases by 2012 and committed about $5 billion a year to global warming science and technology. The U.S. delegation in Montreal has said the Bush administration would also resist binding efforts to control emissions post 2012, after the first phase of Kyoto, infuriating many delegates at the conference.
Smith chastised the federal government response to Katrina as being similar to its response to global warming and urged Washington: “Don’t ignore the warning signs, don’t arrive at the scene late and don’t abandon the Southeast.”
The delegates urged Washington to follow the lead of American mayors who have signed initiatives to reduce greenhouse gases emissions in more than 100 U.S. cities.
“Local governments are thinking globally, why can’t the federal government?” asked Harvey Ruvin, Clerk of the Circuit and County Court in Miami, Fla.
“Atlanta’s mayor has agreed to reduce the city’s carbon pollution; our president should do the same,” said Ed Arnold of Physicians for Social Responsibility in Atlanta.
The delegates said the economic impact of the storms reaches beyond simply rebuilding what the storms have destroyed. Rising insurance premiums from extreme weather will make living on the coastline cost-prohibitive and could produce a capital flight that will impact the regional and national economies, said Andrew Logan, insurance program director for Ceres, a coalition of institutional investors and environmentalists.
“Homeowners and businesses in the Gulf region are already seeing premium hikes and coverage restrictions, and given this year’s devastating hurricanes, conditions will be getting worse before they get better,” Logan said.
The devastating back-to-back hurricane seasons caused $30 billion in insured losses last year and as much as $60 billion in losses from Hurricane Katrina this year.
Bill Stallworth, a city council member from Biloxi, Miss. ? whose city was pounded by Hurricane Katrina ? said the U.S. government must jump on the climate change bandwagon to protect the American way of life.
“It is now time for the U.S. to act. Our quality of life is at stake,” he said.
The 10-day climate change conference resumed Monday, with some 120 environment ministers taking part in crucial negotiations to improve the Kyoto Protol, signed by some 150 nations that pledged to reduce greenhouse gases by 5.2 percent by 2012.
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On the Net:
U.N. Framework Convention on Climate control: http://www.unfccc.int