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Concerns Mount Over Climate Change


Concerns are growing over dramatic climate changes. This winter was one of the warmest, while the coming summer may well be the hottest one in modern Korea’s history.
According to the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the annual average temperature on the Korean Peninsula has increased by 1.5 degrees Celsius over the past 80 years.

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) also reported that winter has become shorter by a month over the past 80-year period in Korea _ a definite sign of a warming effect. The whole Earth has seen an increase of 0.7 degrees Celsius.

Weather predictions have usually been referred to for help in planning activities, or in the case of businesses for production management, but now concern about the climate is going beyond this as fears abound that changes could be devastating, even life threatening.

Today is designated World Meteorology Day by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). This year, the main theme of the day is polar meteorology: understanding global impacts; to warn about global natural disasters resulting from global warming effects such as rising sea levels and melting icebergs at the Poles.

Since global warming became a key issue for the world, governments and people are trying to find the cause of the phenomenon and ways to deal with it.



# The Korea Times [March 23, 2007]

By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter