Canada anxious about snow melting in Arctic

Snow melting in the Arctic as a result of global warming can pose a threat to the population of Canada's northern provinces, said Canadian Environment Minister David Anderson at the World Conference on Climate Change held in Moscow on Monday.

"Climate changes already pose a serious threat in the Arctic, and this bears directly on Canada," he pointed out. In this connection the Canadian minister did not rule out a possibility of resettling the population of the country's northern districts.

Canadian experts cooperate closely with Russian scientists, receiving information on climate change from them, Anderson recalled. "Scientific reports sound frightening, but to sit twiddling one's thumbs is a risky policy," he emphasized.

According to Norwegian Environment Minister Borge Brende, in the recent decades global warming has become evident.

"Scientist forecast that during the forthcoming century, the average air temperature on the Earth may increase by 5.4 degrees, while over the last 10,000 years the temperature growth has not exceeded 8 degrees," Brende pointed out.

The minister urged all countries to ratify the Kyoto protocol as soon as possible, as it will become "a good tool to solve problems related to climate change on the Earth".