Acute affects of climate change

Bob Tarrant, captain of the British navy's ice-patrol ship HMS Endurance, told delegates at a climate change seminar in Simon's Town how he had seen firsthand the acute affects of climate change in Antarctica.

"On the Antarctic Peninsula the effects of climate change are happening very fast. The only other place where they are happening as fast is in the Arctic. We were working at 74 degrees south on the west of the peninsula where the ice-sheet had been chartered, but we were eight miles behind that shelf," Tarrant said.

About 70 percent of the world's fresh water was contained in the polar ice. If all that melted, global sea levels would rise "tens of metres", Tarrant said.

"There is no doubt in the minds of the British Antarctic Survey scientists I work with that human activity is responsible for this," he said.

The seminar, hosted by the SA Navy and the British High Commission on board the HMS Endurance, brought together SA climate change experts and a group of Cape Town high school pupils whom the British Council had targeted to become "climate champions" to spread the word about climate change and the need to counter it.

The Endurance has spent two months in Simon's Town to undergo maintenance after its Antarctic voyage.

Ann Herd from the British High Commission's climate change team, told the seminar that the British government had made climate change one of its strategic priorities.

"The science of climate change is proven. We need to act quickly to counter some of the impacts. The way to do it is to target the next generation. They are the ones going to live with it," Herd said.

Phoebe Barnard, of the SA National Botanical Institute, said climate change was an added stress on ecosystems which had been changed by humans in the past 50 years more than ever before.

"Ecosystems are life-support systems and underpin the economy. We won't develop at all if we don't recognise this. We need to change our economic development and our personal behaviour," she said.

UCT climatologist Peter Johnston said it was important for individuals to understand that each person contributed to global climate change.

"The minute you switch on a light, you are part of the problem. The minute you jump into your car to get a pint of milk you are part of the problem," Johnston said.

Climate change was an added stress factor to many the world already faced, such as poverty, overpopulation, natural resource degradation and water shortages, and should be taken into account in planning.