Al Jazeera English

The Climate Question: Degrees of Change - Part 1

[0:00-0:18] Nick Clark: The climate of planet earth is changing, the natural order is being turned upside down, millions of people are at risk. Global warming takes centre stage, a crucial global summit is about to get under way here in Qatar. Im Nick Clarke and welcome to Part 1 of this Al Jazeera special. [0:19-0:25] Theme music [0:26-1:36] Nick Clark: In the coming days, the world will attempt to re-engage in the battle about climate change, at a key United Nations conference in Doha. Were here in the Arabian Gulf, awash with fossil fuels, oil giant Saudi Arabia is just across the water there, and Iran with its vast reserves of oil and gas 200km in that direction. And whats under these sands make Qatar a major player in energy exports. All helping fuel CO2 emissions, but what most scientists agree are putting mankind on a highly dangerous course. Coming up in the program, Ill speak to the award winning environmentalist David Suzuki, and Nigel Lawson, one of the leading voices calling for less action on climate change because he doesnt entirely believe the science. And well take you to the furtherest parts of the planet to see just how peoples lives are changing. From here in the desert to the Qatari capital, well of course be in Doha, the host of this years climate talks. Nearly 200 nations will be attending the 18th annual conference, to assess what progress has been made to deal with global warming. But first up, just how is the climate changing? [1:37-1:50] Images of natural disasters and turbulent weather [1:51-2:02] Voiceover: Across our planet, scientists say the temperature is rising, and the weather is getting wilder. [2:03-2:05] American voices: My gosh! Its another killer tornado!

[2:06-3:35] Voiceover: Powerful storms are tearing through our towns, swamping ever greater swathes of land. And we are tearing down the trees that keep the air clean. More and more evidence suggests we keep trapping the suns heat in the earths atmosphere. It is parching land, depriving it of the water it needs, and that we need. The creatures which share our earth face new challenges. Our oceans are warming, coral is dying, disrupting food chains. The ice that caps our earth, north and south, is breaking down. Our seas may rise further, and swallow land. The problems are piling up. They cant be swept away or buried. How we manage our changing climate, our own planet, will determine our future. [3:36-3:45] Nick Clark: Well lets hear now from David Suzuki, a Canadian environmentalist and a global leader in the battle against climate change. We spoke to him from our studios here in Qatar. [3:46-4:35] David Suzuki: When I first began to talk about climate change, which is 1988, when climatologists meeting in Toronto said this represents a threat to human survival, second only to all-out nuclear war, and they called for a 20% reduction in greenhouse emissions. Thats when I first began to get interested in this, and that time, I said, This is a slow motion catastrophe, I was more interested in clear-cut logging and depletion of the oceans, and I thought we could wait decades before we did anything about climate change. What surprised me, was with only a 0.7 degree rise, we are now seeing absolutely, monumental impacts in ecosystems around the world, including in the ocean, the change in fish, the movement of species up towards the arctic ocean, were seeing an impact [interrupted] [4:36-4:47] Nick Clark: But let me just go to these talks, these climate talks here in Doha. How hopeful are you, that there will be any substantive action here in Doha? [4:48-5:33] David Suzuki: Im not. Im not. As I dont have much hope for the meetings we have in Rio in June of this year. The problem is very simple. Human beings think theyre so smart and so important that we put our priorities, that is, our political boundaries, our constructs like corporations, the economy, the market and capitalism. We elevate that above ecology. Ecology is the discipline that looks at the conditions, the principles and the laws that regulate species ability to survive and flourish. Now I would have thought any intelligent creature would have said, Weve got to put what ecologists are finding at the highest priority weve got.

[5:34-5:40] Nick Clark: Okay, when you say, Look at nature, what do you mean, what would you do to mitigate climate change? [5:41-6:16] David Suzuki: Im saying that climate is determined by, obviously, the concentration of carbon, the greenhouse gases that are in the atmosphere, and they have equilibrated over many, many centuries, in the past. There are changes, significant changes correlated with temperature and climate. So if we want to retain some kind of stability, and not go into climate chaos, then obviously, weve got to pay attention to the amount of carbon we have put into the atmosphere, and reduce then to a level that can give us some sustainability. Were not doing that. [6:17-6:20] Nick Clark: What do you think will happen, if nothing is done? [6:21-6:25] Silent pause [6:26-7:36] David Suzuki: I have no idea. I listen to the scientists, we talk about the, you know, caving of the great ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, which will, when they fall into the oceans, begin a rise not just in centimetres, but in metres, and thats imminent. Weve seen the change in glaciers that are being rapidly depleted. What the impact of this will be on the water cycles, on the carbon cycles and the nitrogen cycles, we have no idea. But we know that were disrupting some of these great cycles, and the stability of the planet has been radically disrupted. Certainly, just from warming, we know that water expands. So thermal expansion of the oceans is inevitable as we begin to warm the planet. Were getting radical change in the arctic, in terms of the melting, the shorter periods of snowfall and freezing. The ice sheets are thinner each summer. Were absorbing more heat into the we dont know whats going to happen, we can have all kinds of models, but we are disrupting the great heat and cold engines of the planet. The consequences are unpredictable.