U.N. Takes Up Critical Climate Issues

Urgent global action was proposed here Monday to avert a potential catastrophe from changes in the Earth’s climate as the U.N. General Assembly began a week of debate on environmental concerns that have been called as critical as the nuclear threat.

Crispin Tickell of Britain, a well-known climatologist, said: “Climate change, whether natural or man-made, raises problems of a kind which no one has had to face before.”

Tickell cited the depletion of the ozone layer, rising temperatures through the so-called greenhouse effect of the excessive use of fossil fuels and deforestation as key causes of climactic changes that have alarmed many scientists.

He termed deforestation “one of the most tragic events of our time.”

Tom Erik Vraalsen of Norway said the changes will affect everyone, no matter where they live. The potential risk is so high that governments cannot sit back and hope the problem will go away, he added.