There is less than a decade to avoid a catastrophic disruption of the Earth's climate, says a large study to be released Tuesday.
Written by a large panel of scientists, former politicians and economists, this report, dubbed 'Meeting the Climate Change' sets at ten years, "or even less", the point of no return to climate. beyond which greenhouse gas emissions will lead to a disastrous rise in temperature for the planet.
According to this study, the Earth will reach this stage when the average temperature will have increased by 2 degrees compared to the period preceding the industrial revolution of the 18e century.
However, since that time, the planet has already gained 0,8 degrees on average. "The world therefore has only a small degree of margin before the point of no return is reached", warn the authors of the study.
For them, the Earth will have reached this point of no return when its atmosphere contains 400 parts of CO2 per million (ppm). Today, it already contains 379 ppm, a level increasing by 2 ppm each year, says the study.
A warming of the Earth of more than 2 degrees will cause serious disruptions in agricultural production, major droughts, an increase in epidemics, the death of forests, the disappearance of several animal and plant species, as well as a rise in the level of seas.
"An ecological time bomb is on the way," warns Stephen Byers, former British Minister for Transport and member of the expert panel behind the report, which comes as Tony Blair begins his G8 presidency, during which he pledged to take climate change head-on.
The report urgently recommends that the countries of this organization produce, by 2025, a quarter of their electricity from renewable sources and to double by 2010 the research budgets devoted to non-fossil energies.
“It is the investments we make from now on and over the next 20 years that will allow us to stabilize the climate. Not the ones we will agree to by the middle of the 21st century or beyond, ”concludes Tom Burke, former Tony Blair's environmental advisor and also a member of this panel.
source: http://www.lalibre.be/