Blogging Fusion

New reports from an international team of scientists have revealed that Arctic sea ice is set to disappear during the summer within the next five years as a consequence of climate change.
As reported in The Age and on ABC Television?s Four Corners, the team of leading ice and snow scientists is warning that the ice in the North Pole is melting away at a much faster pace than originally and recently predicted. In early 2008, new information about the loss of Arctic ice prompted the US Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to list the polar bear as an endangered species because its populations face possible collapse within a few decades as a result of global warming. Many scientists continue to express concern that, unless we achieve profound global reductions in greenhouse emissions within the next two decades, we will reach a ?tipping point? of irreversible and catastrophic climate change. As Australia prepares to introduce an emissions trading scheme in 2010, these emerging reports only serve to strengthen calls for Australia to act responsibly and urgently on climate change, if we are to ensure we pass on a healthy country to our children and their children. Before the end of this year the Australian Government will propose a 2020 target for reducing Australia?s spiralling greenhouse emissions. Consistent with urgent advice from leading international scientists ? the UN?s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ? ACF is calling on the Australian Government to set legally binding national targets to cut greenhouse pollution by at least 30 per cent by 2020 (from 1990 levels).
For more information on the Australian Conservation Foundation visit www.acfonline.org.au/