Greenpeace unfurled a giant hourglass in Bogota to bring climate change in Colombia to the forefront of President Alvaro Uribes’s priorities, it was reported on Thursday.
Greenpeace activists sent a letter to the Colombian president ahead of the Copenhagen Climate Summit 2009, calling for his commitment to reducing carbon emissions and in particular, to preserving the delicate ecosystem of the Colombian moorlands.
Ampugnani explained that world climate change will have drastic and irreversible affects in Colombia, “in particular, in the high moorlands – known as Paramos, which are one of the world’s most vulnerable ecosystems. It is estimated that 75% of the Paramos will vanish if temperature continues to rise”.
Temperature increase would also cause more intense caribbean huricanes, melting glaciers in the Andes mountains and as a result a massive loss in species.
However, the director of the Colombian Environmental Institute claimed that “Colombia is a world leader in adapting to climate change” and he declared that Colombian State investment in environmental risk reduction between 2005 and 2009 exceeded $1.8 trillion.
