G8 moves forward on climate change - but is it enough?

July 31, 2009 - By David Suzuki with Faisal Moola

The world’s richest countries appear to be taking climate change seriously. At their recent meeting in L’Aquila, Italy, G8 countries agreed that global warming should not exceed two degrees Celsius, on average, over the pre-industrial temperature. The European Union, along with more than 100 other countries, heeded the advice of climate scientists some time ago in committing not to breach the threshold – but it took this meeting to get Canada, the U.S., and Russia on board.

The reason for the limit is simple. Scientific research shows that the impacts of climate change would be dramatic if average global temperatures were to rise above this level. Crop yields would decline, many more of the world’s plants and animals would be at risk of extinction, water availability would decrease significantly for many human populations, violent storms would become more frequent, and oceans would rise more quickly...see full article.