WARMING  (CONT)

veyor current.

This conveyor current brings warm tropical waters north and moderates temperatures in eastern North America and Europe. Large volumes of fresh water spilling out of the Arctic ocean could slow its northward movement, leading to an abrupt climate shift where the region would experience much cooler temperatures in just a few years time.

Some scientists have detected signs that this may be already starting to happen.

Despite the alarming evidence, there is little good news when it comes to taking action on climate change. Carbon dioxide emissions are climbing globally, including by the biggest contributor, the United States.

"The Bush administration doesn't believe there's a problem and are behind the delay in the release of the report," said Gordon McBean, an ACIA participant from the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction at the University of Western Ontario. "They don't even think they ought to reduce their emissions, period."

But to truly reduce the impact on the Arctic, global emissions have to be reduced by a whopping 50 percent before the year 2050, McBean told IPS.

The Kyoto Protocol, which has not been ratified in the seven years since it was created because the United States and Russia, among others, will not support it, would reduce emissions a mere 5 percent by 2012.

"Kyoto was just a first step, we need a strategy to get to a 50 percent reduction," McBean said.

Even Canada, which strongly supports Kyoto and emissions reductions, has done little to reduce its own pollution, he said.
Government inaction on climate change by Canada and the United States is due in large part to the failure of the general public to apply pressure on the issue, says Watt-Cloutier.

"People don't seem to understand that what they do on a daily basis has a direct impact on the people and wildlife of the north," she said, adding that she hopes people will begin to see that their actions -- their choice of vehicle, for example -- can produce negative consequences for others and future generations.

"People do want to do the right thing, but they just don't realize that the Arctic is melting and they are responsible," she said.

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