GOVERNMENT ministers from 160 countries are meeting in the Hague discussing climate changes.

For years human-induced climate change was just a theory with many uncertainties and no conclusive evidence. But scientists gathered data and in 1995 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that man was having a discernible impact on the global climate.

Since then the evidence has quickly built up and the latest IPCC report states that the Earth is heating up much faster than previously predicted.

As well as temperature rises, climate change has been linked to an increase in the incidence of extreme weather, the making of deserts, the spread of tropical diseases, the decline of coral reefs and the deaths of tropical rain forests.

We urgently need to reduce emissions of gases causing global warming, namely carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and CFCs.

To prevent dangerous climate change we need to invest in renewable energy, to produce energy efficient products, adopt a sustainable transport policy and support local businesses. Action in these areas would create thousands of new jobs and improve our quality of life.

If readers want to know why governments are so worried about climate change they should ask for an up-to-date book on climate change at their local library.

Guy Wallbanks,

Co-ordinator, York & Ryedale Friends of the Earth,

Kingsway West, York.