From World Wildlife Fund US
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Washington - A high-level delegation, including Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz. and
Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has visited the Arctic island of Svalbard to learn
about the Arctic's changing climate and be briefed on the forthcoming Arctic
Climate Impact Assessment. This international project of the Arctic Council
and the International Arctic Science Committee will be released in November.
It is the first comprehensive peer-reviewed scientific assessment of current
and projected climate change in the Arctic.
More than 250 preeminent climate researchers have participated in the
assessment. Senators Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., John Sununu, R-N.H., and Susan
Collins, R-Maine, are also part of the delegation.
Katherine Silverthorne, director of World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) U.S. Climate
Change program released the following statement on the occasion of the
historic visit to the Arctic:
"World Wildlife Fund's work in the Arctic has documented the growing
threat climate change poses to polar bears and other wildlife. To give polar
bears and other Arctic species a chance to survive, we must act now to limit
emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide before it's too late. The upcoming
release of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment will confirm the urgency of
the situation.
We admire the kind of leadership that takes these senators all the way to the
Arctic to learn climate change impacts first hand. One cannot visit global
warming's "ground zero" and not come away with a vivid picture of
just how dire this problem will be if we don't take immediate steps to
implement solutions."
Communications Officer
World Wildlife Fund US
1250 24th St. NW
Washington, DC 20037
tom.lalley@wwfus.org