Apparently this is what counts for news these days. How stupid to they think people are?
Women more at risk from climate change: Canadian at UN conference
06:41 PM EST Dec 19
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) - Severe weather caused by global warming can pose greater physical danger to women than men, a Canadian attending a UN conference on climate change said Friday.
"For instance, often women don't know how to swim, so in a flood situation that can lead to a higher instance of death or injury," Angie Daze, a program manager with a Canadian group called Reducing Vulnerability to Climate Change, said.
Plans for international co-operation to fight global warming beyond the end of the Kyoto Protocol dominated the United Nations conference on climate change.
The top European Union negotiator said support was building for a proposal to hold a pair of international seminars next year to discuss additional measures to reduce climate change after 2012, when the landmark agreement ends.
"We're quite encouraged with the response we've received from a number of negotiating partners," including Australia, Mexico and Switzerland, chief EU negotiator Yvo de Boer said Friday.
The gatherings would serve as informal forums to begin discussing possible future emmissions cuts and other steps beyond the timeframe of the Kyoto Protocol.
De Boer acknowledged that deliberations at the conference may appear to be moving slowly, but stressed that progress was being made.
"The Kyoto Protcol is probably the most important international environmental agreement," said de Boer, a senior official in Holland's environmental ministry.
"To really embark on the next stage of discussions, which will have far greater implications, is very significant."
Meanwhile, scientists and environmentalists at the conference continued to warn participants of the dangers of climate change, which many believe poses a serious threat to life on Earth.
Caspar Ammann, a scientist and climatologist with the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, said temperature changes are apparent all around the world.
"You see the glaciers disappearing very rapidly, you see changes in vegetation and changes in seasonal cycles," Ammann said.
"It's not anecdotal that the climate system is warming."
"I think maybe in 10 years' time we will know a little better," said Shuzo Nishioka of Japan's National Institute for Environmental Studies.
Other speakers on the sidelines of the Dec. 6-17 conference said women in poor countries are particularly vulnerable to the effects of global warming, which has been blamed for causing more violent storms and rising sea levels, among other problems.
"Women are highly dependent on the environment for their family responsibilities" in developing countries, said one environmental worker based in Bangladesh.
"Any type of environmental degradation impacts them more severely than men."
© The Canadian Press, 2004