Warming as Dangerous as War, U.N. Chief Says

(2007-03-03 18:07:00.0)

Upheaval from droughts, floods "likely to become a major driver of war" UNITED NATIONS - Human-induced global warming poses as much danger to the world as war, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday as he urged the United States to take the lead in the fight against global warming. In his first address on the subject at the U.N. General Assembly hall, Ban said he would emphasize the climate crisis with the leaders at a June meeting in Germany of the Group of Eight industrialized nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain, the United States and Russia. "The majority of the United Nations work still focuses on preventing and ending conflict," Ban told an international U.N. school conference on global warming. "But the danger posed by war to all of humanity and to our planet is at least matched by the climate crisis and global warming." In coming decades, changes in our environment and the resulting upheavals from droughts to inundated coastal areas to loss of arable land are likely to become a major driver of war and conflict," said Ban, who became U.N. chief on Jan. 1. Ban said the world needed a more coherent system of international environmental governance and that he hoped the United States would take the lead in looking toward the climate change fight beyond 2012 when the international Kyoto climate pact expires.