Preparing the world for the worst!

The Worldwatch Institute has drawn 4ecotips.com's attention to the fact that last year the world was captivated by academy award and Nobel Prize nominee Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Now, the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows the science is not only inconvenient-it's incontrovertible.

Some 2,500 scientists from more than 130 countries agree that there is at least a 90 percent probability that warming observed during the past 50 years is the result of human activity (up from 66 percent chance stated in the last IPCC report released in 2001).

IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri has said the report's greatest contribution to the debate was in achieving consensus about the threat. The question now is: What can we do about global warming and how can we prepare our world for worsening storms, droughts, floods and other impacts?

One way, according to a report by Carlos Grande and Fiona Harvey in the UK's Financial Times  newspaper, could be a series of concerts "bigger than Live Aid" which is being planned for July motivated by former US vice-president Al Gore.  This is a bid to put the subject of climate change before a global audience of 2bn.

The first event, say messrs Grande and Harvey, is scheduled for 7 July, and will feature co-ordinated film, music and television events in seven cities including London, Washington DC, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town and Kyoto, with major broadcasters and media owners aiming to extend the reach of public awareness of global warming.

The organisers hope to involve up to 2.5m people in events and link-ups at the cities involved, as well as other locations. They are promising a line-up of artists to "dwarf" that of the Live8 and Live Aid concerts, thought to be branded under the name "SOS".

More information: www.ipcc.ch