WELLINGTON, Nov. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- A top New Zealand researcher has warned "if we continue our present growth path, we are facing extinction," the South Island-based daily The Press reported Wednesday.

    Professor Peter Barrett will be presented with the Marsden Medal in a prestigious award ceremony in Christ church Wednesday night for his 40-year contribution to Antarctic research, latterly focusing on climate change.

    The Director of Victoria University's Antarctic Research Centreexpects to use his acceptance speech to warn climate change was a major threat to the planet.

    "After 40 years, I'm part of a huge community of scientists who have become alarmed with our discovery, that we know from our knowledge of the ancient past, that if we continue our present growth path, we are facing extinction," Barrett said.

    "Not in millions of years, or even millennia, but by the end of this century," he added.

    Barrett won the award - designed to mark lifetime achievement in the sciences - for his research into Antarctica, which began with helping prove New Zealand was once part of the Gondwanaland supercontinent.

    Barrett's warning underlines comments he made last year that even the Kyoto Protocol on global warming would not be enough to avert a climate disaster. The United States and Australia have refused to adopt Kyoto protocol measures.

    "Research on the past Antarctic climate has an ominous warning for the future," he said.

    "We need an international commitment to an effective solution, if we are to survive the worst consequences of this grandest of all human experiments," Barrett said. Enditem