World climate change negotiators faced warnings from a string of extreme weather events around the globe, showing urgent action on emission cuts is needed, as they opened new talks in Bangkok recently, reports Apilaporn Vechakij for Agence France Presse. The meeting in Bangkok, which was devastated by major floods last year, is preparing for an international November meeting of ministers. “This meeting opens in the … aftermath of … powerful reminders of the urgent need to lower greenhouse gas emissions,” said Marlene Moses of Nauru, Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States. Some experts believe the UN target to limit the rise in global average temperatures to about 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit is already unattainable. UN official Christiana Figueres said,”Climate change, and typhoons or droughts like in the United States are interlinked.” An interactive 2012 timeline of 36 extreme climate and weather events worldwide so far, featured at the Insights page of wri.org, the website of the World Resources Institute, highlights the avalanche of extreme weather predicted under ongoing climate change and now being observed worldwide. The grim news? Far more events occurred than are on the list.
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Storms, drought overshadow UN Climate Meeting. World climate change negotiators faced warnings Thursday that a string of extreme weather events around the globe show urgent action on emission cuts is needed as they opened new talks in Bangkok. Agence France-Presse http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gzAJegiK7gSFnP660_1150fntzbA?docId=CNG.1618ff5e5a91d223f4fc2156719ed2e2.821
2012 Timeline of extreme weather and climate events: http://insights.wri.org/news/2012/09/timeline-extreme-weather-events-2012
