Greenpeace campaigner Laura Yates, said: "Rising temperatures are causing glaciers to melt all over the world. In Patagonia, they are disappearing faster than anywhere else on Earth. There are many reasons for the speed of the retreat but climate change is the trigger for the process."

In recent years the melting of the glaciers in Patagonia has accelerated, which indicates human induced climate change. From 1995 through 2000 the rate of ice loss from the ice fields more than doubled, to an equivalent sea level rise of 0.1 mm (0.004 inches) per year. The sheer volume of melt water from glaciers is causing the sea levels to rise (1), increasing the risk of flooding in many of the world's coastal areas. It is also starting to cause problems for people who depend on the glaciers for their fresh water supply. This may cause enormous problems in the future given that a third of the world's population - 2 billion people - rely on rivers fed by Himalayan glaciers alone.

Greenpeace has been touring Patagonia and Chile for 4 weeks, investigating the extent to which the glaciers and ice-fields there are disappearing. The research team's findings confirm that a number of large glaciers, such as the San Quintin and Upsala glaciers, part of the Northern and Southern Patagonian ice-fields, have significantly thinned and have retreated several kilometres in recent years.

A recent study by the journal Nature (2) showed that climate change could drive a million of the world's species to extinction as soon as 2050. "Climate change is a global problem - not only do we risk losing the world's glaciers but we are already witnessing an increased frequency and severity of floods (3), droughts and storms, loss of coral reefs, rises in sea levels and a rapid spread of diseases such as malaria," added Yates.

Climate change is occurring because we use energy created by fossil fuels - oil, coal and gas. When these fuels are burned, they release carbon dioxide (CO2), a so called 'greenhouse gas' that causes the Earth to warm.

"Climate change poses a greater threat to the world than terrorism. Its time for our leaders to show leadership. The world is looking to European governments to take on the US and start ensuring significant global reductions in fossil fuel emissions. At the moment we are failing in our responsibility for future generations", concluded Yates. (4)

Renewable energy technologies and industries are poised on the brink of a revolution all they need is political support. World leaders are being invited for the first time to attend an international renewables conference, to be held in Bonn (June 1 to 4, 2004 ).

Greenpeace calls upon all world leaders to attend to this conference and to adopt firm commitments to provide a minimum to 20 % of our power from clean sources by 2020.

Notes to Editors
For more information contact the Greenpeace Press Office on 020 7865 8255
For photos call Greenpeace pictures on 020 7865 8294
Click here for a background briefing or contact the Press Office.

1.Contribution of the Patagonia Icefields of South America to Sea Level Rise by Eric Rignot, Andr￩s Rivera and Gino Casassa, Science 2003 October 17; 302: 434-437. (in Reports)

2.Extinction risk from climate change. Nature, January 2004.

3.The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

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