As the world's biggest polluter, the United States must take the threat of global warming more seriously, says Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser, Sir David King. In an article published today in the journal Science, King says, "In my view, climate change is the most severe problem that we are facing today, more serious even than the threat of terrorism."

King says he believes the Bush administration was wrong to pull out of the Kyoto protocol, and wrong to imply that the protocol could hurt the U.S. economy.

"As the world's only remaining superpower, the United States is accustomed to leading internationally coordinated action. But the U.S. government is failing to take up the challenge of global warming," King says.

Yesterday, results of a major study were published worldwide, saying that global warming will wipe out more than 1 million species over the next 50 years.

But countries such as the United Kingdom cannot stop the problem of global warming by themselves, especially since the United States is by far the biggest producer of greenhouse gases on the planet.

"The United Kingdom is responsible for only 2 percent of the world's emissions, the United States for more than 20 percent (although it contains only 4 percent of the world's population)," King says.

"As a consequence of continued warming, millions more people around the world may in the future be exposed to the risk of hunger, drought, flooding and debilitating diseases such as malaria," he adds (Steve Connor, London Independent, Jan. 9).

Copyright, National Journal Group, 2004