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CONTENTS
IN FOCUS
p 2 - Watching the oceans for signs of climate change
NEWS
p 10 - Science prizes awarded at Science Forum
p 10 - Telemedicine gives medical training new edge
p 11 - Declaration adopted on Bioethics and Human Rights
p 12 - Physicists commit to sustainable development
p 12 - First step towards environmental institute
INTERVIEW
p 13 Sabrina Krief on why Great Apes still have a lot
to teach us
HORIZONS
p 16 - Taking the temperature of mountains
p 20 - Arsenic filter stalks silent killer in Bangladesh
IN BRIEF
p 23 - Governing Bodies
p 24 - Diary
p 24 - New releases
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We
are all polar bears
On
the first day of a UN conference in Montréal last December
to begin preparing the post-Kyoto period after 2012, host
country Canada described greenhouse gas emissions as being
the greatest threat facing the world today. 'Let us set our
sights on a more effective, more inclusive long-term approach
to climate change', Canadian Environment Minister Stephane
Dion urged delegates. With three of the world's four biggest
CO2 emitters not bound by the Kyoto Protocol - the USA because
it never ratified, China and India because they are developing
countries - the post-Kyoto period will indeed be critical.
James
Hansen, a climate scientist with NASA's Goddard Institute
for Space Studies, warned at an American Geophysical Union
conference the same month that even perfect adherence to Kyoto
by all countries would not prevent dramatic climate change
as levels of greenhouse gases continue to rise. As for opting
for 'business as usual', that scenario would lead to such
dramatic climate change, he said, as to 'constitute a different
planet'.
There
is now a wide body of scientific evidence that human activity
is changing the climate. The signs are perhaps most visible
in the Arctic, where sea ice cover this past summer was the
smallest ever measured. Scientists predict a mostly ice-free
summer by 2080 if present trends continue unchecked. Without
ice, polar bears will be unable to reach the seals that constitute
their staple diet.
But
polar bears are only the tip of the iceberg, as it were. Melting
permafrost is also causing homes in Arctic regions to subside.
In mountain regions around the world, supplies of usable freshwater
are slowly but surely diminishing as glaciers retreat, a trend
which is set to cause water shortages for tens of millions
of Asians and Latin Americans dependent on this resource.
As the Greenland and Arctic ice sheets melt, sea level could
rise by up to 1 m by 2100, flooding low-lying areas worldwide.
And what effect will the additional freshwater have on ocean
circulation patterns? There are already signs that a section
of the ocean conveyor belt transporting heat northward in
the North Atlantic has slowed down. If the North Atlantic
cools, so too will temperatures in Western Europe.
The
Kyoto Protocol and its successor are an insurance policy against
runaway climate change. In this issue, we look at UNESCO's
contribution to research on climate change via the Global
Ocean Observing System and the Global Change in Mountain Regions
(GLOCHAMORE) project, against the backdrop of the Montréal
conference.
The
better our scientific understanding, the better equipped we
shall be to cope with our changing climate.
W.
Erdelen
Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences
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UNESCO
Scientific 
