UN chief sees climate change first-hand in Arctic

Times of India , Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Correspondent : AFP
AALESUND, NORWAY: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moom on Tuesday visited a research community in Ny-Aalesund in the Arctic's Svalbard archipelago to see the effects of climate change first-hand, officials said.

The visit came less than 100 days ahead of a key summit in Copenhagen in December where world leaders will try to seal a new international accord on fighting climate change after the Kyoto Protocol requirements expire in 2012.

Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, visited the Korean section of the research station in the small town, located 1,200 kilometres (745 miles) from the North Pole, an advisor at the Kings Bay company which runs the site, Bendik Eithun Halgunset, said.

Anywhere between 15 and 180 people work at the Ny-Aalesund site depending on the season, in fields often linked to climate change such as atmospheric studies, land and marine biology, glaciology, geodesy and oceanography.

Ten countries have scientific bases in Ny-Aalesund, where mobile phones are prohibited so as not to disturb the measurement instruments: Britain, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway and South Korea.

Ban hopes to use his experience in Svalbard to convince the international community about the dangers of climate change at the Copenhagen summit hosted by the UN, a meeting he has described as "crucial".

"One of the very important reasons for my coming to Norway is to see first-hand the dramatic changes to the Arctic and to learn what that means for mankind," he said in Oslo on Monday before departing for Svalbard.

In order to prepare for the Copenhagen talks, the UN plans to organise a high-level international meeting in New York on September 22, he said.

"I will take all I have learned to the high-level summit meeting."

While in Svalbard, Ban was also due to visit the Zeppelin atmospheric measuring station located on a peak overlooking Ny-Aalesund and which studies Arctic sea ice.

Weather permitting, he was also to take a helicopter to the Norwegian research vessel Lance which is studying the Arctic ice off Svalbard.

"It's not sure that it will be possible because of rain," Halgunset said.

"If it's not possible, the alternative is that he will visit the research stations in Ny-Aalesund," he added.

Only the British, French, German, Korean and some Norwegian stations are open at this time of year, he said.

In Longyearbyen, the main town in the archipelago, Ban was also to tour a vault carved into the Arctic permafrost and filled with samples of the world's most important seeds.

Dubbed the "Noah's Ark" of food, the vault can hold up to 4.5 million samples that can provide food crops in the event of a global catastrophe.

A 1920 international treaty which placed the Svalbard archipelago -- also known as Spitzberg -- under Norwegian sovereignty allows broad access to citizens from signatory countries.

Svalbard is twice the size of Belgium.

 
SOURCE : Wednesday, September 02, 2009
 


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