Humans "very likely" changing the climate, says long-awaited IPCC report
A few weeks of leaks stole some thunder, but the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released the first installment of its long-awaited fourth report, and the news is -- well, not news, thanks to those meddling leakers. But let's pretend. The news is out! The world's scientists say there's a 90-plus percent chance that humans are causing global warming! They say by 2100, temperatures will likely rise 3.2 to 7.1 degrees Fahrenheit, and sea levels will rise 7 to 23 inches, plus another 4 to 8 inches if polar ice sheets keep melting. This is the real deal -- and it's a conservative deal, since it required a 154-country consensus. "Anyone who would continue to risk inaction on the basis of the evidence presented here will one day in the history books be considered irresponsible," said Achim Steiner, who heads the U.N. Environment Program. Even the U.S. sorta admitted the report has legs, with a White House science and technology policy staffer saying it "will be valuable to policymakers." As kindling, or what?
source: Forbes, Associated Press, Seth Borenstein, 02 Feb 2007
source: BBC News, Richard Black, 02 Feb 2007
source: Los Angeles Times, Thomas H. Maugh II, 02 Feb 2007
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Comments
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Rob Smith Posted 4:23 am
02 Feb 2007
There will not be future history books if we do not act on global warming now.The current and ever more increasing demands of climate change include terrible human displacement, changes or losses in food supplies. This is in addition to what we've already managed on our own: almost worldwide depletion of fisheries, decimation of forests and natural areas.
We can turn this around by changing our carbondioxide emissions and converting to sustainable living patterns. A few good references:
Collapse, How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond
The Future Eaters, by Tim Flannery
The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850, by Brian M. Fagan
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linda95959 Posted 6:18 am
03 Feb 2007
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