Ted Turner: Climate Change Humanity's Most Serious Problem
Turner told reporters on a teleconference today, "They pointed out to us while looking at the glacier that it is receding every year due to global climate change. The temperature here at the high latitudes changes more rapidly than it does in the temperate zones."
Based on observations to date, the scientists projected that this year the extent of Arctic sea ice will be smaller than it has ever been, even smaller than in the previous record low year of 2007.
Among the board members visiting Svalbard was Gro Harlem Brundtland, a physician who served three terms as Prime Minister of Norway in the 1980s and '90s, and then became director general of the World Health Organization.
As chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development in the 1980s, Brundtland created the concept of sustainable development and provided the momentum for the UN's 1992 Earth Summit. She now serves as a Special Envoy on Climate Change for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Brundtland told reporters on the call that the scientists informed the group that ocean waters have heated up over the past decade at least one degree Celsius to a depth of 1,000 meters. "This is a dramatic change in a short period of time due to the changes humanity is causing by how we are acting," Brundtland said.
Asked what can be done to convince and persuade climate skeptics and deniers to recognize what so many scientists know and are trying to communicate so urgently, Turner said, "That's a very good question. If we knew the answer to it, we'd already have an energy policy in this country," he said, referring to his home country of the United States.
"We just have to keep working as we're doing now to get as much publicity as we can for the facts," said Turner. "The evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of recognizing climate change."
