[GJM] Fw: Global warming: the final verdict

[marguerite hampton]

Thanks again,Tim for your input.  I had been reading
reports such as this in the past few weeks which is why
I felt global climate change to be happening much more
quickly than anticipated.  

Just the local climate change alone over the past few 
years has been noticeable.  And, I can't believe that it 
will be 50 to a hundred years before the full affect hits.  

While this report talks about the Gulf Stream remaining 
stable, I just read another report yesterday saying it 
had stalled completely on 11 December 2006 and then 
reversed direction.  I am more trustful of my intuition than
news reports and  still feel that Gore is closer to the truth 
than anyone,and it will be "within his is lifetime'.  How old 
is he anyway?  

eco 
 
-------Original Message-------
 
From: Tim Jones
Date: 01/21/07 17:42:27
To: AAA:,
Subject: Global warming: the final verdict
 
Global warming: the final verdict
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1995348,00.html
A study by the world's leading experts says
global warming will happen faster and be more
devastating than previously thought
Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday January 21, 2007
The Observer
 
Global warming is destined to have a far more
destructive and earlier impact than previously
estimated, the most authoritative report yet
produced on climate change will warn next week.
 
A draft copy of the Fourth Assessment Report of
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
obtained by The Observer, shows the frequency of
devastating storms - like the ones that battered
Britain last week - will increase dramatically.
Sea levels will rise over the century by around
half a metre; snow will disappear from all but
the highest mountains; deserts will spread;
oceans become acidic, leading to the destruction
of coral reefs and atolls; and deadly heatwaves
will become more prevalent.
 
The impact will be catastrophic, forcing hundreds
of millions of people to flee their devastated
homelands, particularly in tropical, low-lying
areas, while creating waves of immigrants whose
movements will strain the economies of even the
most affluent countries.
 
'The really chilling thing about the IPCC report
is that it is the work of several thousand
climate experts who have widely differing views
about how greenhouse gases will have their
effect. Some think they will have a major impact,
others a lesser role. Each paragraph of this
report was therefore argued over and scrutinised
intensely. Only points that were considered
indisputable survived this process. This is a
very conservative document - that's what makes it
so scary,' said one senior UK climate expert.
 
Climate concerns are likely to dominate
international politics next month. President Bush
is to make the issue a part of his state of the
union address on Wednesday while the IPCC
report's final version is set for release on 2
February in a set of global news conferences.
 
Although the final wording of the report is still
being worked on, the draft indicates that
scientists now have their clearest idea so far
about future climate changes, as well as about
recent events. It points out that:
 
· 12 of the past 13 years were the warmest since records began;
 
· ocean temperatures have risen at least three kilometres beneath the
surface;
 
· glaciers, snow cover and permafrost have decreased in both hemispheres;
 
· sea levels are rising at the rate of almost 2mm a year;
 
· cold days, nights and frost have become rarer
while hot days, hot nights and heatwaves have
become more frequent.
 
And the cause is clear, say the authors: 'It is
very likely that [man-made] greenhouse gas
increases caused most of the average temperature
increases since the mid-20th century,' says the
report.
 
To date, these changes have caused global
temperatures to rise by 0.6C. The most likely
outcome of continuing rises in greenhouses gases
will be to make the planet a further 3C hotter by
2100, although the report acknowledges that rises
of 4.5C to 5C could be experienced. Ice-cap
melting, rises in sea levels, flooding, cyclones
and storms will be an inevitable consequence.
 
Past assessments by the IPCC have suggested such
scenarios are 'likely' to occur this century. Its
latest report, based on sophisticated computer
models and more detailed observations of snow
cover loss, sea level rises and the spread of
deserts, is far more robust and confident. Now
the panel writes of changes as 'extremely likely'
and 'almost certain'.
 
And in a specific rebuff to sceptics who still
argue natural variation in the Sun's output is
the real cause of climate change, the panel says
mankind's industrial emissions have had five
times more effect on the climate than any
fluctuations in solar radiation. We are the
masters of our own destruction, in short.
 
There is some comfort, however. The panel
believes the Gulf Stream will go on bathing
Britain with its warm waters for the next 100
years. Some researchers have said it could be
disrupted by cold waters pouring off Greenland's
melting ice sheets, plunging western Europe into
a mini Ice Age, as depicted in the disaster film
The Day After Tomorrow.
 
The report reflects climate scientists' growing
fears that Earth is nearing the stage when carbon
dioxide rises will bring irreversible change to
the planet. 'We are seeing vast sections of
Antarctic ice disappearing at an alarming rate,'
said climate expert Chris Rapley, in a phone call
to The Observer from the Antarctic Peninsula last
week. 'That means we can expect to see sea levels
rise at about a metre a century from now on - and
that will have devastating consequences.'
 
However, there is still hope, said Peter Cox of
Exeter University. 'We are like alcoholics who
have got as far as admitting there is a problem.
It is a start. Now we have got to start drying
out - which means reducing our carbon output.'
 
Posted by Tim
AustinTexas
--
<http://groundtruthinvestigations.com/>
 
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