Nature's bottom line

Climate protection and the carbon logic

Publication date: July 2000

Summary
The 1997-1998 El Nino event with its fires, floods and outbreaks of disease and pestilence, offers a glimpse of the future in a 'warmed' world and illustrates vividly the disastrous consequences that even minor fluctuations in the climate system can bring.

Scientists warn that the rates of climate change are likely to exceed any in the last 10,000 years, making it impossible for many ecosystems to adapt and survive.