Climate scientists fear fudge at G8 meeting

[Jack]

From NewScientist.com
17:25 05 July 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Fred Pearce

Climate scientists fear that this week’s G8 talks in Gleneagles, Scotland, will not hear the truth about the “clear and present danger” of climate change. In 2004, UK prime minister Tony Blair said that action to halt climate change would be a top priority, along with poverty in Africa, for the UK's chairmanship of the G8 in 2005. To update politicians, he called a conference of scientists in February 2005 to discuss the risks of “dangerous” climate change and how to prevent it happening. The meeting - held in Exeter, southwest England - concluded that the risks were “more serious than previously thought". UK environment secretary Margaret Beckett said she believed “the conference will be seen as a turning point in the perception of climate change. It underlines the need for urgent action”. But Will Steffen, chief scientist at the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, who helped organise the conference, says he fears the message has not got through to the leaders. “It is clear that the risk of dangerous climate change is higher than we thought even a year ago,” he told New Scientist. “World leaders should be made aware of these developments in the scientific community.”

I'm not an ecologist, so I can't say too much about this except that opinion seems widely diverse. There are so many "facts" on both sides I find it difficult to figure out who's got the better arguments.