NEWS: Climate change worsening, says weather agency

December 9, 2009
The Canadian Press

Report turns up heat at UN talks

OTTAWA -- The United Nations weather agency has delivered a sobering forecast at the Copenhagen climate talks that could turn up the heat on Canada.

The World Meteorological Organization reported Tuesday that this decade will probably rank as the warmest since records were first kept in 1850 -- and this year could be one of the five warmest years ever recorded by scientists.

The news comes as the Harper government faces heavy criticism at home and abroad to do more to fight climate change.

But Canada's top climate envoy says the UN report doesn't crank up the pressure to get a deal done in Copenhagen.

"I think it is simply that, a reconfirmation of what we know," said Michael Martin, the chief climate-change negotiator. "We know that the science is clear and that we need to take urgent action."

If there was any ray of sunshine poking through the gloomy forecast, it was that only Canada and the United States experienced cooler conditions than average. January's average temperature in the Great Lakes region was colder than normal.

But the UN agency still noted troubling signs of a warming across Canada.

Vancouver and Victoria set hot-weather records in late July. A record number of tornadoes whipped across Ontario, killing a record number of people. And avalanches were almost double the yearly average for the past decade and the worst since 2002--03, making this year one of the deadliest.

The warming effects have also been felt in the North.

Arctic sea ice has been melting for three decades. The biggest thaws come during the summer melt season.

But the weather agency says Arctic sea ice retreated more between 2007-09 than in any other recorded period.

So acute are the effects of warming in the North that the head of Canada's main Inuit organization says her people should get a piece of any global pot created to help countries adapt to climate change.

Inuit leader Mary Simon says money should be made available to populations at risk in both developing and developed countries.

The UN weather agency's report came as countries met for the second of 12 days of climate talks in Copenhagen. Delegates from 192 nations are trying to broker an agreement.

 

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