Publication Laka-library:
Gathering Storm. The human cost of climate change (2000)
| Author | FOE |
| Date | September 2000 |
| Classification | 6.01.2.15/28 (NP & GREENHOUSE EFFECT - CO2 REDUCTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE) |
| Front | 
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From the publication:
Summary People will be exposed to unacceptable risks for as long as governments ignore the immediacy of the dangers posed by human-induced climate change. Negligence at the national level is mirrored by complacency at the international level with the failure of the world's historical polluters to reduce their carbon emissions. In November 2000 the world's governments will meet at The Hague to finalise the Kyoto Protocol, the key environmental treaty to tackle climate change. Decisions taken at this summit, known as COP6 (the sixth Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), will determine the ultimate environmental effectiveness of the Protocol. There is growing evidence that human activities are affecting the Earth's climate and that climate change is the most significant global environmental issue facing the world today. In this report Friends of the Earth International demonstrates the urgency of action needed to halt climate change (Part 1). While governments have been prevaricating in conference halls and meeting rooms, a trail of climate disasters has wreaked havoc with people's lives and livelihoods around the world. Although no individual weather event can be directly attributed to climate change, personal testimonies from survivors of Hurricane Mitch, the Mozambique floods and other events give a chilling insight of what may lie ahead for more of us in the future (Part 2). Tragically such events are often overlooked and quickly forgotten by those unaffected. Though place and circumstance vary, the survivors' common refrain was that people did not have adequate warning to prepare - so the loss of life and livelihoods was all the greater. If we're not ready for the events of today, how are we to be ready for the events of tomorrow? In the absence of deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, climate change threatens more frequent and extreme high-temperature events, droughts, floods, cyclones and storm surges with knock-on effects for ecosystems, fires, pest outbreaks, human health, our settlements and food security (Part 3).
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