In a presentation to mark World Meteorological Day, David King, the chief scientific adviser to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, highlighted recent disasters to demonstrate that authorities tended to either ignore warnings from scientists or were inadequately prepared.

"Governments today ignore the advice of science at the peril of their own populations," King told the audience at the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

For climate change, "the science is there -- you need to act now because in order to be prepared the investment has to take place over a long period of time," he explained.

He suggested that experience from the tsunami which devastated Indian Ocean coastlines in 2004, or the destruction wrought by hurricane Katrina on the US city of New Orleans last year, underlined the value of scientific evidence and the need for proper protection mechanisms.

"We need a system where the scientific capacity can be mined into, and presented directly to heads of state, the people in responsible positions, to make the right decisions."

King called climate change "the biggest new challenge facing us in the 21st century" and "possibly the biggest challenge since we developed our civilisation".

There was no longer much doubt about its cause -- carbon dioxide emissions caused by burning fossil fuels like oil and coal for energy -- and its impact, he added.

"We're in a situation where the scientific community has reached a very broad consensus on this and now we need government action," King underlined.

"We have two actions: one is calling mainly on nation by nation to prepare to adapt to the climate changes ahead, and the second is to mitigate, that's going to help our grandchildren."

King highlighted research showing that people near coastlines around the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia would be particularly vulnerable to flooding by 2080 if nothing was done.

"It means that many people are going to lose their normal place of living. I think the potential for major geopolitical instability, if we don't take action, is quite massive."

According to scientists, the amounts of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere will have an effect for the next two to three decades.

That, King explained, meant vulnerable regions needed to shore up their defences because changes in weather patterns were "coming anyway".

Britain's top scientific official presented a 1979 map showing the Indian Ocean coast of Indonesia, the epicentre of the 9.3-magnitude quake that caused the December 2004 tsunami, was of "highest seismic potential".

Scientists also toured the region in summer 2004 to urge local authorities to set up a tsunami warning system similar to the one set up decades earlier in the Pacific Ocean, according to King.

"That didn't happen. Part of the problem was the scientists did not have a mechanism to get their message up to the leaders of the nations in that part of the world," he said.

About 220,000 people died in 11 Indian Ocean countries. An early warning system is now being established.

While early warning systems worked with New Orleans, the subsequent evacuation was criticised and dykes around the city were too fragile despite evidence that storms in the area had worsened in intensity over the years.

"While the information was conveyed, the business of getting the action into place didn't happen," King said.

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World Meteorological Day