Aussie scientist: Greenhouse gases worse

SYDNEY, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Top Australian conservation scientist Tim Flannery says the global level of greenhouse gases is now far worse than predicted.

Speaking on an Australian Broadcasting Corp. TV program, Flannery warned that huge industrial and economic changes had to be made quickly to slow the growth of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Flannery, the "Australian of the Year," revealed some details of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, due for release next month.

He said the report will show that by mid-2005 greenhouse gas levels had already reached levels deemed to be dangerous,.

"We've really seen an unexpected acceleration in the rate of accumulation of CO2 (carbon dioxide) itself," he said.

"I mean it's beyond the worst-case scenario as we thought of it in 2001 and some other gases also have been produced on a larger scale than had been imagined."

Flannery said the IPCC report " establishes that the amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is already above the threshold that could potentially cause dangerous climate change."

"What it says is that we already stand an unacceptable risk of dangerous climate change and that the need for action is ever more urgent," he said.