- LONDON (AFP) - Human induced
global climate change is a weapon of mass destruction at least as dangerous
as nuclear, chemical or biological arms, a leading British climate scientist
warned.
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- John Houghton, a former key member of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, said Monday that the impacts of global warming
are such that "I have no hesitation in describing it as a weapon of
mass destruction."
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- He said the United States, in an "epic" abandonment
of leadership, was largely responsible for the threat.
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- "Like terrorism, this weapon knows no boundaries,"
Houghton said. "It can strike anywhere, in any form -- a heatwave
in one place, a drought or a flood or a storm surge in another"
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- The US mainland was struck by 562 tornados in May, killing
41 people, he said, but the developing world was hit even harder.
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- For example, pre-monsoon temperatures this year in India
reached a blistering 49C (120F), 5C (9F) above normal.
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- "Once this killer heatwave began to abate, 1,500
people lay dead -- half the number killed outright in the September 11
attacks on the World Trade Centre," Houghton said.
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- He said British Prime Minister Tony Blair begun to face
up to this, rhetorically at least, but "nowadays everyone knows that
the US is the world's biggest polluter, and that with only one 20th of
the world's population it produces a quarter of its greenhouse gas emissions."
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- "But the US government, in an abdication of leadership
of epic proportions, is refusing to take the problem seriously -- and Britain,
presumably because Blair wishes not to offend George Bush -- is beginning
to fall behind too," Houghton said.
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- Apart from being co-chairman of the scientific assessment
group of the climate change panel, Houghton is also the former chief executive
of the British Meteorological Office.
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