Climate change could devastate RP: NASA scientist
Agence France-Presse | 09/12/2008 6:53 PM
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MANILA - Climate change could have a devastating impact on the Philippines, leading to widespread destruction of the country's flora and fauna and flooding the capital Manila, a NASA scientist warned here Friday.
The continued melting of Arctic ice caps, brought on by climate change, could cause sea levels to rise by seven metres (23 feet), said National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) physicist Josefino Comiso.
He said the country's fish stocks would be depleted and many species of plant and animal life would die because of the change in ocean temperatures caused by climate change.
"The Philippines is a country that is among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change," Comiso said.
A senior research scientist at a NASA centre that monitors the effects of global warming, he made the warning after attending a conference of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical Astronomical Services Administration.
Comiso said he was working on a project, to be funded by the Manila government weather station, to monitor the effects of global warming in the Philippines.
The project, which will be based in a state university outside Manila, will coordinate its research efforts with NASA.
Comiso was part of the United States Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change which shared with former US vice president Al Gore the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
