Climate change is "a myth," sea levels are not rising and Britain's chief scientist is "an embarrassment" for believing catastrophe is inevitable. These are the controversial views of a new London-based think-tank that will publish a report today attacking the apocalyptic view that man-made greenhouse gases will destroy the planet.
The International Policy Network will publish its long-awaited study, claiming that the science warning of an environmental disaster caused by climate change is "fatally flawed." It will state that previous predictions of changes in sea level of a meter over the next 100 years were overestimates.
Instead, the report will say that sea level rises will reach a maximum of just 20cm during the next century, adding that global warming could, in fact, benefit mankind by increasing fish stocks.
The report's views closely mirror those held by many of US President George Bush's senior advisers, who have been accused of derailing attempts to reach international agreement over how to prevent climate change.
The report is set to cause controversy. The network, which has links with some of the President's advisers, has received cash donations from the US oil giant ExxonMobil, which has long lobbied against the climate change agenda. Exxon lists the donation as part of its "climate change outreach" program. Environmentalists on Saturday said the network report was an attempt by US neoconservatives to sabotage Prime Minister Tony Blair's attempts to lead the world in tackling climate change.
It has close links to the Washington-based organization, the Competitive Enterprise Institute which is run by Bush's top climate adviser Myron Ebell. It was Ebell who recently launched an astonishing personal attack on Britain's chief scientist Sir David King after he described climate change as a greater threat than terrorism.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
CYBERCRIME, TRAFFICKING: A ‘pattern of state failures’ allowed the billion-dollar industry to flourish, including failures to investigate human rights abuses, it said Human rights group Amnesty International yesterday accused Cambodia’s government of “deliberately ignoring” abuses by cybercrime gangs that have trafficked people from across the world, including children, into slavery at brutal scam compounds. The London-based group said in a report that it had identified 53 scam centers and dozens more suspected sites across the country, including in the Southeast Asian nation’s capital, Phnom Penh. The prison-like compounds were ringed by high fences with razor wire, guarded by armed men and staffed by trafficking victims forced to defraud people across the globe, with those inside subjected to punishments including shocks from electric batons, confinement
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
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