I am here today to observe the impact of global warming, to see for myself the effects of climate change on Chile, and to learn all I can.

Before coming here, my senior advisers and I sometimes joked among ourselves that we were going on an ``eco tour.´´ But this is serious business, global warming. I am not here as a tourist. I am here to determine the facts. I am here as a messenger of early warning. Unless we act, now, a global calamity awaits us. This is no exaggeration.

What we saw here today is extraordinarily beautiful. These dramatic landscapes are rare and wonderful. But it is deeply disturbing as well. We can see our world changing. The snow and ice of the Andes is melting, far faster than we think.

I saw this yesterday in Antarctica. I see it again today here at this great national park, Torres del Paine. It is among the most beautiful in the world. It is hard to find such pristine places in our world today. Yet here, too, change is coming. Here, too, the ice is melting.

The famous Tyndall glacier, where we walked amid the most majestic landscape, is thinning. Not far away, there are other glaciers. One of the largest, O´Higgins glacier, retreated 14.6 kilometers between 1986 and 1995, I have learned. Scientists say that 87 percent of this park´s glaciers are in retreat.

We see this elsewhere in Chile, as well. Your researchers tell me that roughly half of the 120 glaciers they monitor are shrinking at a rate twice as fast as a decade or two ago. These include the glaciers in the mountains outside Santiago that provide fresh water for 6 million residents. What will happen if, or when, these glaciers vanish?

Further north, Chile is experiencing increasing drought and decreasing rainfall. Your country´s mining industry is threatened by lack of water. This is a mainstay of the economy, both in terms of exports and jobs. Agriculture, too, is at risk. So is your hydroelectric power.

Chile does not produce much of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. But it is paying the price. That is why it is so important that we work together. Global warming can be fought only by joint international effort. As we go forward, beginning with this fact-finding trip and the climate change summit in Bali early next month, I count on Chile´s support.

I immensely appreciate the support the government and people of Chile have given so far, and I especially appreciate your warm welcome and the immense help President Bachelet and others have given in organizing this trip and doing so much to focus global attention on this problem. This is all part of the hard work of galvanizing world opinion and political will, without which there can be no success in the war on global warming.

Thank you.