just as world leaders are getting ready to head to Denmark for a big climate negotiations conference that will determine the treaty to follow the Kyoto Protocol, a new scientific assessment is painting a dark picture of the future, based on recent climate science.
Though not an official report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 14 of the 26 authors are scientists who helped construct the scientific assessment in 2007. Since then, they felt that so much new data shows that the previous estimates were too conservative and the rate of global warming was significantly underestimated.
Here are some key points of the 64-page Copenhagen Diagnosis: Updating the World on the Latest Climate Science (PDF).
The human induced global warming trend is still active, despite less solar activity and seasonally cool temperatures.
Glaciers, ice caps and ice sheets have been melting at an accelerated pace since 1990, especially on Greenland and Antarctica.
Arctic sea ice has been melting at a rapid rate, making parts of the Arctic ice-free in summer for the last three years.
Sea levels are rising much faster than previously thought–two inches in the last 15 years.
The report finds suggests that vulnerable elements of the climate system could push us past tipping points if emissions reductions are delayed. And in order to meet the globally-determined safe threshold of less than two degrees Celsius, carbon emissions must peak by 2015 and then rapidly decline to almost zero by 2050.
To underscore the importance of the Copenhagen Climate Conference, President Obama will appear during the proceedings on Dec. 9 to urge world leaders to reduce emissions right away.
Very Useful informations! This report is indeed interesting. I am a college sophomore with a dual major in Physics and Mathematics @ University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. By the way, i came across these excellent physics flash cards. Its also a great initiative by the FunnelBrain team. Amazing!!!