Climate change warning
Copyright 2000, BBC News Online
September 11, 2000
Scotland has been given a fresh warning about the danger of global warming by environmentalists.
Pressure group Friends of the Earth Scotland has published a new report which claims climate-related disasters are already wrecking lives and local economies around the world.
The report warns that, even if governments take action now, climate change will become a disastrous reality.
The fuel protests in France - and to a lesser extent the UK - have highlighted the difficulty in raising fuel costs.
'Natural' disasters
Environmental groups are in favour of higher fossil fuel prices as a way to reduce carbon emissions which contribute to the so-called greenhouse effect.
Climate change, Friends of the Earth says, means extreme weather as well as a rise in temperatures.
In the past 12 months it cites forest fires in north America, drought in Ethiopia and floods in southern Africa as just some of the events which could be connected to global warming.
It acknowledges it is impossible to tell whether individual events are the direct result of man made climate change, but says they show the world's vulnerability to such change.
The pressure group has released its report in advance of a major climate summit in the Hague this November and a day of action there.