Canada's Forests, Fish, Agriculture Seen in Danger
7/14/97
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Subject: Canada's forests, fish, agriculture seen in danger
Organization: Copyright 1997 by Reuters
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 1997
OTTAWA (Reuter) - Canada's forests, fish and farms will be
at serious risk if greenhouse gas emissions continue to change
the country's climate, a government report released Monday said.
``If climate change occurs to the extent predicted by
current models, there will be a significant risk to Canada's
environment,'' the report for the United Nations' Framework
Convention on Climate Change said.
``Canada's agricultural, fishery and forestry sectors could
be adversely affected, as could human health and the nation's
infrastructure,'' said the report prepared by Environment Canada
and Natural Resources Canada.
The report was required as part of Canada's commitment to
the United Nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990
levels by the year 2000.
But emissions were about nine percent higher in 1995 than in
1990, the report said. The authors predicted emissions would
fall slightly by 2000 but remain above the 1990 level.
As a result, most models show Canada's interior regions
warming more than the coasts, and greater winter warming in the
Arctic than in the south. The report also projected more
frequent and more vicious storms.
``Canadians would face important socioeconomic repercussions
should these changes materialize as predicted,'' it said.
The report blamed part of the problem on Canada's vast
distances and heavy dependence on energy-intensive natural
resource development. Energy use accounted for 89 percent of the
country's greenhouse gas emissions in 1995, the paper said.