"Abnormal" weather is becoming the norm in many parts of the world. Average temperatures, precipitation and wind patterns are changing, and non-climate factors -primarily the accumulation of greenhouse gases produced from human activities - are driving this change. Find out more about the forces behind climate change - but also about the growing citizen awareness and new climate policies towards sustainable development.
The 15th Conference of Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) is set to take place in Copenhagen from Dec. 7 to 18. World leaders are expected to try to agree on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol which is set to expire in 2012.
Scientific consensus and the acceptance of the scientific findings is no longer an issue. The main snag to any comprehensive global plan appears to be the issue of financing, particularly the funding of climate initiatives in developing countries by public or private backers in industrialised countries.
IPS environment and science correspondent Stephen Leahy appears on
Vancouver's Radio Ecoshock to discuss climate change, the future of the
oceans, and why leading scientists are hitting the streets to demand policy
changes.