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This Summer Will Be Hottest in History: Experts

Posted March. 22, 2007 03:03,   

한국어

“It has become clear that the culprit of global warning is human beings and that global warming is the main factor of the climate change.”

Experts in and outside of Korea, such as Dennis Hartmann, a professor at Washington University, and Phil Johns, a professor at the University of East Anglia, said at a symposium titled “Global Warming and its Social and Economic Effects” held at the Millennium Seoul Hilton Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul and funded by the Journal of the Korean Meteorological Society on March 21, that the global warming rate for 50 years from 1956 to 2005 rose two-fold compared with the increase in the 100 years from 1906 to 20005, and that the Earth’s sea level has been going up ever since statistics began being kept in 1880. Most of them participated in writing the fourth evaluation report of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), which was released in February regarding climate change.

Professor Johns, who made the keynote address, anticipated that this year will be the hottest in history. Not only did he say that average climate will increase but also that it will be the hottest summer because of the influence of El Nino just like from 1997 to 1998. Professor Johns said that the possibility is very high because this January and February were hot worldwide.

He pointed out that the culprit responsible for global warming is human beings since the earth should get cold, factoring in natural forces such as volcanoes and excluding artificial factors caused by human activities.

Doctor Kito Akio of the Tsukuba Meteorological Research Institute in Japan predicted that based on climate models and possible scenarios, East Asia’s increase in temperature on the earth’s surface will be 20 percent higher than the international average.

Doctor Kwon Won-tae of the Meteorological Research Institute in Korea anticipated that according to a climate change simulation, the Korean peninsula could see a four-degree increase in temperature and 16 percent increase in precipitation by the end of the 21st Century.

Experts say that carbon dioxide emissions produced from fossil fuel should be decreased in order to ease global warming. Professor Michael Schlesinger of the University of Illinois asserted that if the efforts to reduce carbon emissions are delayed, there may be bigger consequences in the future.

Professor Lee Myung-kyun of Keimyung University forecasted that the carbon trade market should be activated as advanced and developing countries have all agreed to it, which is still in the sample stage. He anticipated that as China readies a plan to establish a carbon trade market, a first for a developing country, Korea could benefit from it due to its proximity.



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