Warming Trends
Global Warming Effects Felt Worldwide
The Associated Press
G E N E V A, Oct. 19— Cities including New York and Tokyo may face flooding; large swathes of Latin America will suffer from drought and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef may be destroyed unless more is done to stop global warming, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature warned today.
     The environmental group urged governments meeting in Germany next week to honor earlier pledges to cut emissions of carbon dioxide — one of the main greenhouse gases — by implementing tough energy-saving policies. 
     “Evidence for the warming of our planet over the last 200 years is now overwhelming,” said a WWF statement. “With no action to curb emissions, the climate on earth over the next century could become warmer than any the human species has lived through.” 

Many Species in Danger
It said China’s Giant Panda and the Arctic polar bear were among the species at risk of extinction from global warming. 
     WWF commissioned the Climatic Research Unit at Britain’s University of East Anglia to conduct research into various climate change scenarios over the next few decades. 
     It projected that sea levels would rise between three-quarters of an inch to four inches per decade. This would threaten low-lying U.S. coastal cities such as New York, Boston, Baltimore and Miami with flooding. The Japanese cities of Tokyo and Osaka — among others — would also be at risk, it said. 
     Large areas of the Amazon would become more susceptible to forest fires. Drought would also likely affect Argentina, southern Mexico and Central America. Rising sea temperatures by 2010 threatened the very survival of the Australian Great Barrier Reef. 
     Scientists generally agree that temperatures are rising — with 1998 being the warmest year on record. But there is no consensus on how much man is to blame. 

Human Interferance
“Although the precise contribution of human activities to global warming cannot yet be stated with confidence, it is clear the planet would not be warming as rapidly if humans were not currently emitting about 6.8 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year,” said the WWF report. 
     Under a 1997 agreement reached in the Japanese city of Kyoto, industrialized nations agreed to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by five percent between 2008 and 2012. 
     Representatives from 150 countries meet later this month in Bonn to work on ways of implementing the Kyoto deal prior to a November 2000 meeting in the Netherlands. 
     While President Clinton signed the Kyoto agreement, he has not sought its ratification because of widespread opposition in the Senate. Critics say it will cost too much to implement while developing countries will be allowed to let greenhouse emissions grow.