Climate change is a far greater threat to the world today than international terrorism, a leading expert said here on Monday.
"At the rate we are going, in 2050 the torrid summer of 2003 will be the average temperature for central Europe," observed Sir David King, chief scientific advisor to the British government and a professor at Cambridge.
King made his remarks during a ceremony at which he received an honorary degree from the University of Turin for his contributions to surface science.
In his acceptance lecture, King told students that "the glaciers of Greenland are melting at a rate much faster than expected and the sea level is rising by two millimeters a year".
If this continues, he warned, "many cities will be submerged and hundreds of millions of people will be forced to leave their homes, creating conflicts similar to those today in Darfur".
It is because of this," the Cambridge professor said, "that climate change is the greatest challenge governments face today, much more so than terrorism".
Despite the vast problems at hand, King said he saw reasons to be optimistic.
"During my last visits to India and China I noticed that environmental problems are beginning to be taken more seriously," he said.
"What we need to do now is perfect the Kyoto protocol because we can reach an international accord if we want to. And I'm optimistic we will", Professor King concluded.
