While a group of 500 international climate change experts gather in Paris' UNESCO headquarters to discuss a long-awaited report carried out by the Interngovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the current effects of climate change, the Eiffle Tower's 20,000 flashing lights will go dark for 5 minutes to raise awareness on the global warming issue.
The report, to be unveiled on Friday, is expected to inform on the present effects of global warming, shown in the current average temperatures and the rise of the sea level in different parts of the world. Early drafts of the report depict a less alarming situation than that of the 2001 report, however some scientists have complained that the new figures are not recent (and thus accurate) enough as they do not reflect recent melt-off of some ice chunks in Antarctica and Greenland.
“We are hoping that it will convince people that climate change is real and that we have a responsibility for much of it, and that we really do have to make changes in how we live,” said Kenneth Denman, one of the report’s authors.
“At no time in the past has there been such a global appetite” for reliable information on global warming, the IPCC’s Chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, told the conference. In this direction, Greenpeace hang this week a banner across the
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