Strong climate change message from Antarctic leaders
05 Nov 2009
World leaders in Antarctic marine conservation gathering in Hobart this week must send a strong message to Copenhagen negotiators concerning the dire risks facing the southern continent as a result of climate change, WWF-Australia warned today.
Representatives of more than 30 nations, including Australia, New Zealand, Russia, China, the European Union and the United States are meeting in Hobart from October 26 to November 6 as part of the annual Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).
The convention is one of the last opportunities on a global level to send a strong message to world leaders as the countdown to climate change talks in Copenhagen in December begins.
"It's not only the species living in this extremely cold environment that will be impacted by climate change in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Changes to the southern polar regions could create devastating cascade effects felt throughout the world," said Mr Rob Nicoll, WWF Antarctic and Southern Ocean Initiative Manager.
"Antarctica and the ocean currents that surround it have a profound effect on the world's climate. A change to any one of the major systems on this continent will be felt by us all.
"It is critical that delegates meeting this week at CCAMLR make their voices heard in Copenhagen: we need a strong agreement in December if we are to effectively deal with the dangers posed by climate change to this pristine and most precious of environments."
Alarming research recently published in respected journal Science indicates that carbon levels today are only slightly lower than they were 20 million years ago, when temperatures were 3-6C higher, the Antarctic ice caps had completely melted and sea levels were 25-40 metres higher.1 "In short, we could be very close to a major climate tipping point and not even be aware of it," said Mr Nicoll.
Despite the far-reaching effects climate change in Antarctica could have on the rest of the planet, research into how quickly the continent is changing has been limited by its isolation and extreme weather conditions.
To combat this lack of knowledge, WWF and the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre is supporting the Australian Antarctic Division’s effort to establish the Southern Ocean Sentinel climate change monitoring program.
"The 2007 IPCC Report indicated our current understanding of climate change in Antarctica and the Southern Oceans has made it difficult to predict with certainty when key climate change tipping points will be reached in this region and how quickly those changes will affect the rest of the world," Mr Nicoll said.
"The Sentinel program aims to facilitate a long term collaborative international program to gather data on climate change and its effects on the Southern Ocean.
"This information can be used to improve management practices and predict future climate change impacts on the Southern Ocean and the rest of the world.
"With recent research indicating climate change is proceeding more rapidly than was predicted by the IPCC, the Sentinel program is an urgently needed component in our understanding of climate change.
"Not only does the Antarctic's future depend on it, so does our own."
More information
Alvin Stone, Press Officer, WWF-Australia
Mobile: 0410 221 068
Rob Nicoll, Antarctic and Southern Ocean Initiative Manager, WWF-Australia
Mobile: 0438 938 764
Note
1 Coupling of CO2 and Ice Sheet Stability Over Major Climate Transitions of the Last 20 Million Years. Authors: Aradhna K. Tripati , Christopher D. Roberts, Robert A. Eagle (October 8, 2009 - Science).
