Global Warming Debate ll

[ZenGum]

Note to self: plagiarize new Scientist before writing long posts.

This links to the New Scientist home page.

This links to their "Climate Change" special report, a collection of all the stories they have relevant to climate change. Some are good news - a new carbon binding crop, eg.. A few dispute the reality and anthropogenicity of climate change. The vast majority are not good news, and do not dispute this.

This links to the "Instant Expert" article found on that page. The original is better than this copy because every claim has a link which supports it.

Here are some highlights of that article:

Climate change is with us. A decade ago, it was conjecture. Now the future is unfolding before our eyes.

SNIP

Scientists see it in tree rings, ancient coral and bubbles trapped in ice cores. These reveal that the world has not been as warm as it is now for a millennium or more. The three warmest years on record have all occurred since 1998; 19 of the warmest 20 since 1980. And Earth has probably never warmed as fast as in the past 30 years - a period when natural influences on global temperatures, such as solar cycles and volcanoes should have cooled us down. Studies of the thermal inertia of the oceans suggest that there is more warming in the pipeline.

Climatologists reporting for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) say we are seeing global warming caused by human activities and there are growing fears of feedbacks that will accelerate this warming.

SNIP


If current trends continue, we will raise atmospheric CO2 concentrations to double pre-industrial levels during this century. That will probably be enough to raise global temperatures by around 2°C to 5°C. Some warming is certain, but the degree will be determined by feedbacks involving melting ice, the oceans, water vapour, clouds and changes to vegetation.

SNIP

As natural ecosystems - such as coral reefs - are disrupted, biodiversity is reduced. Most species cannot migrate fast enough to keep up, though others are already evolving in response to warming.

Thermal expansion of the oceans, combined with melting ice on land, is also raising sea levels. In this century, human activity could trigger an irreversible melting of the Greenland ice sheet and Antarctic glaciers. This would condemn the world to a rise in sea level of six metres - enough to flood land occupied by billions of people.

SNIP

The bottom line is that we will need to cut CO2 emissions by 70% to 80% simply to stabilise atmospheric CO2 concentrations - and thus temperatures. The quicker we do that, the less unbearably hot our future

Only thing I'd change is that last paragraph: "We will need to" should read "We need to".