Tsunami Warning System By Next Year

[britmaveric]

Indian Ocean to get tsunami warning system by next year

PORT LOUIS (AFP) - A tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean is expected to be up and running by June 2006 and a global system to be in place a year later, the UN agency overseeing the project said.

The UN education and scientific agency said the cost of the Indian Ocean mechanism would be a mere 30 million dollars (22.5 million euros), a far cry from the billions in damage caused by last month's Asian tsunami disaster.

UNESCO (news - web sites), which helped set up an existing tsunami early warning system for the Pacific in 1968, is taking the lead in international efforts to create a regional alert system for the Indian Ocean followed by a global one to avert another tragedy on the scale of the tsunami that killed more than 159,000.

"If everything goes well, the initial warning system for the Indian Ocean should be put in place at least in its provisional form by June 2006 and the global warning system should be put in place... by June 2007," said UNESCO chief Koichiro Matsuura.

Matsuura said the estimated cost of the Indian Ocean tsunami early warning system would be a paltry 30 million dollars and lamented that governments and donors had up until the December 26 disaster turned a deaf ear to proposals to set up such a center.

"It's peanuts compared to what happened," he told a news conference here on the sidelines of a UN conference on small islands. "We learned this in a very costly way."

The conference opened Monday with a call to set up the global system to help the world's most vulnerable states cope with hazards and disasters like the tsunami that devastated 12 countries including the Maldives, a cluster of 1,192 low-lying islands scattered across the Indian Ocean.

The Maldives representative at the conference said damage from the tsunami on the islands was estimated at more than one billion dollars and that 150,000 people had been left homeless in the wake of the disaster.

Delegates at the conference pressed for tough action on climate change, with the tiny Pacific state of Tuvalu, population 11,500, accusing the United States of being "in denial" about its effects.

Tuvalu, a low-lying atoll affected by sea-level rise, said it had locked horns with the United States and other countries over calls for action to curtail greenhouse gas emissions, the cause of man-made global warming.

"Clearly we have difficulties with some countries willing to admit that climate change is happening now," said Ian Fry, Tuvalu's international environmental adviser.

"Principally the United States is in a state of denial," he told AFP on the sidelines of closed-door meetings.

The United States has refused to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol (news - web sites) which is aimed at fighting global warming and is due to come into force on February 16.

John Turner, the US assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs, said the United States understood the concerns of island nations but would stick with its position.

"We realise the vulnerability of low-level island states to the potential impact of climate change and of course they are seriously vulnerable to extreme weather events," he told AFP.

But Turner said Washington would stick to the commitments made at a UN conference on climate change in Buenos Aires last month, and that the Mauritius meeting was not the forum to "renegotiate" issues of global warming.

Representatives from more than 110 countries including some 40 island nations are meeting in Mauritius this week to review an action plan launched in 1994 in Barbados to help the world's smallest countries deal with challenges such as climate change, trade losses and natural disasters.

[aaaaaa]

Thursday, 20 January, 2005, 13:44 GMT

BBC News / World

Asian tsunami alert system backed

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Donor countries and nations affected by the Asian tsunami disaster have agreed the UN should begin work on an early warning system in the Indian Ocean.

UN agencies said they were ready to start work immediately and that a basic system could be ready in 12-18 months.

The agreement came at a conference on disaster prevention in the Japanese city of Kobe.

Meanwhile, Indonesia said it had received pledges of $1.7bn (£900m) in tsunami aid from donors for 2005.

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[karazyal]

Indian Ocean to get tsunami warning system by next year

PORT LOUIS (AFP) - A tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean is expected to be up and running by June 2006 and a global system to be in place a year later, the UN agency overseeing the project said.

????

The conference opened Monday with a call to set up the global system to help the world's most vulnerable states cope with hazards and disasters like the tsunami that devastated 12 countries including the Maldives, a cluster of 1,192 low-lying islands scattered across the Indian Ocean.

????

Tuvalu, a low-lying atoll affected by sea-level rise, said it had locked horns with the United States and other countries over calls for action to curtail greenhouse gas emissions, the cause of man-made global warming.

?????

"Clearly we have difficulties with some countries willing to admit that climate change is happening now," said Ian Fry, Tuvalu's international environmental adviser.

"Principally the United States is in a state of denial," he told AFP on the sidelines of closed-door meetings.

The United States has refused to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol (news - web sites) which is aimed at fighting global warming and is due to come into force on February 16.

John Turner, the US assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs, said the United States understood the concerns of island nations but would stick with its position.

?????

Reply to GLOBAL WARMING - Kyoto Protocol

The earth has gone through climate changes many thousands of time since our planet was formed.

Ice ages have come and gone. The remnants of the last Ice Age left North America barely 12,000 years ago. Twenty thousand years ago you would have found most of America and Canada covered with a very thick layer of ice.

These glaciers eventually melted and receded - ALL WITHOUT THE HELP OF MAN! The glaciers receded not because SUV's were sold, not because oil refineries or coal burning factories were polluting the air, and not because of the lack of a signature by the UNITED STATES supporting the KYOTO PROTOCOL!

Climate changes occur routinely and normally all the time, a cycle of warming and cooling is normal! Cow farts, volcanoes, forest fires, and the normal decomposition/rotting of vegetable matter contribute more to GLOBAL WARMING than anything man has ever done. In fact, before man became the dominant animal in North America, forest fires would burn "out of control" for hundreds of years! Man, because we are concientious thinking human beings, put out forest fires! Because there are no "out of control" forest fires - the air cleaner today than it was a thousand years ago!

If the UNITED STATES had signed the KYOTO PROTOCOL the result would be practically a "ZERO" affect on lowering GLOBAL WARMING! The savings in "excess heat" caused by America's air pollution would be less than ONE - SEVEN HUNDREDTH of a degree, spread out over 50 years. That is the fraction of 1 over 7oo divided by 50 (years) for our annual contribution to global warming!

For this tiny fraction of savings 25% of American industry would be shut down or severely affected. Many millions of people would be unenployed or underemployed!

Because, we as human beings, use our resources and manpower in putting out forest fires, now have cleaner air than 1000 years ago. (Not to mention that in North America, for the same reason, that we put out forest fires, have MORE trees growing TODAY than 1000 years ago!)

The United States not signing the KYOTO PROTOCOL has NO effect on Global Warming! But the KYOTO PROTOCOL would be a death blow to America's economy - perhaps the "real" goal of the sponsors and proponents of this agreement!

This doesn't mean we should pollute the air and nothing will happen, what it does mean is don't look for a "BOGEYMAN" to blame for normal climate change!