Higher Sea Levels, Worst Threat Posed by Climate Change

Katmandu, Sep 7. -Higher sea levels could be the worst threat posed for the planet if the consequences of climate change are not contained, Nobel laureate Rajendra K. Pachauris said.The fourth assessment report of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, presided over by Pachauris, stated that average sea level would rise from 0.18 to 0.59 meters in the coming years.

Quoted by the IANS news agency, Pachauris said that an "irreversible and abrupt" change of that variable would cause the extinction of 20 to 30 percent of vegetables and animals.

Invited by the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development, which includes India, China, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Bhutan, Pachauris spoke on climate change in the Himalayan mountains and ways of adapting and mitigating its consequences.

In his opinion, higher sea levels would immediately affect lower coast zones, and in the long term will affect the highest areas of Asia, because it would cause flooding and drought.

Initially, in China alone a quarter of a million people would be affected, Pachauris stated. (Prensa Latina)