Paris, Feb. 3 (AP): The bleak outlook of a major new report on climate change shifted the onus onto governments, even mankind, to stop prevaricating and truly act, with dire warnings Friday from around the world that drastic, rapid change is needed, not least from the United States.
"We are on the historic threshhold of the irreversible," warned French President Jacques Chirac, who called for an economic and political "revolution" to save the planet.
"While climate changes run like a rabbit, world politics move like a snail: either we accelerate or we risk a disaster," said Italy's environment minister, Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio.
Campaigners and governments pressed industrial nations, some specifically naming the United States, to significantly cut greenhouse-gas emissions. Others said the threat was not simply to the environment, but to international peace, prosperity and development.
There were calls for urgent talks to hammer out a new worldwide agreement to stop global warming. The Italian minister called for a global tax on carbon emissions and a "strong" United Nations organization for the environment.
South Africa's Environmental Affairs Minister Arthinus van Schalkwyk said failure to act would be "indefensible". His Indonesian counterpart said "drastic steps" were needed to slow rising temperatures.
"We are now beyond a critical turning point in the debate: those who continue to ignore the threat and its causes, or invoke half-baked arguments to confuse and obstruct, will be doing the greatest disservice imaginable to current and future generations," van Schalkwyk said.
