Pressmeddelande - 30 mars, 1995
Observations of records around the world show a general increase in rainfall which is what climate models projected, says the report "Climate Change and River Flooding", written for Greenpeace by Professor Pier Vellinga of Amsterdam Free University. The flooding report, using existing climate data and computer modelling, finds evidence that increases in rain and river flow, consistent with global warming, have already occurred.
Northern Europe is likely to experience a 10-20% increase in rainfall
during winter months by 2070. Indeed, in Bavaria in southern Germany,
rainfall increased by 40% between 1960 and 1990. But while Northern
Europe can expect more floods, arid areas, such as Southern Europe and
North Africa, will probably experience a decrease in rainfall, the
report says. The amount of rainfall in Canada and the USA has increased
by 7.6% from 1891 to 1990 and one study from 14 stations in Germany
showed that runoff from rainfall was 26% higher after1964 than before,
it says.
- The prospect of wetter winters and increased flood
damage is already sending ripples through the insurance industry. The
industrialised world must agree to serious reductions in CO2 to avoid
the financial and human costs of increased flooding, said Bill Hare,
head of Greenpeace International''s delegation in Berlin.
- Yet the
Climate Summit is still not moving towards serious consideration of the
Alliance of Small Island States'' (AOSIS) Protocol, which proposes
industrialised country C02 cuts of 20% by 2005. Here we see another
sign that climate change has already arrived, he said.
* Kopior av den holländska rapporten kan beställas från Per Hörberg, Greenpeace Sverige, telefon 031-22 40 64.
Sedan
i måndags sitter tre Greenpeace-aktivister i en 193 meter hög skorsten
på brunkolskraftverket Frimmersdorf nära Köln. Klättrarna tänker stanna
uppe i skorstenen medan klimatkonferensen pågår som en ständig
påminnelse till konferens- deltagarna om att de nu måste göra något åt
människans utsläpp av koldioxid Ð den främsta orsaken till den
tilltagande växthuseffekten.