Climate change already here, conference told

EXETER, England (AFP) — Evidence is growing that global warming is already starting to disrupt the world's delicately-balanced climate system, and the damage will reverberate for generations, a top science conference was told.

"There is no longer any doubt that the Earth's climate is changing," conference chairman Dennis Tirpak said Tuesday.

"Globally, nine of the past 10 years have been the warmest since records began in 1861," he said. "Rising greenhouse gases are affecting rainfall patterns and the global water cycle."

Tirpak singled out the heatwave that gripped western Europe in 2003 as an example. Europe's worst natural disaster in 50 years killed as many as 30,000 people and inflicted an estimated 30 billion dollars (23 billion euros) in damage.

"Since the 1970s, climatic warming has increased the extent and frequency of droughts over land," he said. "(...) Terrestrial ecological systems are shifting and marine ...