Nobody on the planet will be untouched by the impacts of global warming. The UN panel's climate change report is the most comprehensive assessment yet of the effects of global warming on our planet. Its authors have warned the "very social stability of human systems could be at stake" unless the world acts in response to halt the emissions of greenhouse gases. Along with outlining the risks of extreme weather, the disruption of ecosystems and international security, the report has thrown up some surprising warnings, from the declining attractiveness of the Great Barrier Reef to the impact of the average American child's carbon footprint. Sea levels will rise by six to seven metres if the Greenland Ice Sheet melts. The 2.8 million cubic kilometre sheet has experienced record melting in recent years Oceans are becoming more acidic. The increasing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere - higher now than at any time in at least 800,000 years - dissolves into carbonic acid in the world's water. An estimated 24 million tonnes of CO2 is absorbed every day into the sea - from industrial societies alone. Many species of fish look set to die out during and beyond the 21st century. The report says habitat modification, pollution, over-exploitation and the movement of other species will see a "large fraction of both terrestrial and freshwater species face increased extinction risk". Shelled marine creatures at the base of the ocean's food chain are at special risk from the acidification of the water. Humans relying on sea fish as a source of food will also be severely affected. The Great Barrier Reef will be hugely altered and less attractive in future. Australia's vast reef was declared in "danger" by the World Heritage Committee and is now ruled "highly vulnerable" to global warming and ocean acidification by the UN panel. "The Great Barrier Reef is expected to degrade under all climate change scenarios, reducing its attractiveness," the authors warned. Climate change is responsible for the soaring food prices which caused worldwide riots in 2008. The report connected the environmental impact to political instability, such as the riots in Asia and Africa, saying: "Climate change can indirectly increase risks of violent conflicts." The UN panel also warned of future unrest if forecast flooding along south Asia's coastline causes mass migration by the end of this century. Coffee production will be hit because of warmer weather. Rising temperatures from climate change fuel the growth of diseases which have ravaged plantations around the world. "In many cases, the area suitable for (coffee) production would decrease considerably with increases of temperature of only 2-2.5C," the report said. Production of wheat could be at risk after 2050. Increases in crop yields have slowed in recent years and the declining rate in the production of maize, rice and wheat is set to continue by more than 25% up to 2050. A boom-and-bust era is expected to hit crop producers, with wheat especially affected Dr Saleemul Huq, one of the report's authors, has said the world's richest nations are "going to have to think about climate change," adding: "We're seeing that in the UK, with the floods we had a few months ago, and the storms we had in the US and the drought in California. These are multibillion dollar events that the rich are going to have to pay for, and there's a limit to what they can pay." The UN panel say climate change affects global poverty, destroys food systems and homes, causes animal extinctions and extreme weather like wildfires, floods, hurricanes, droughts and tornadoes
Greed doesn't act for the common good and for that reason the human race is buggered. Not the planet, mind you, that will carry on regardless.
"World's top climate scientists told to 'cover up' the fact that the Earth's temperature hasn't risen for the last 15 years" http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...r-fact-Earths-temperature-risen-15-years.html
Daily Fail again! Starting point of that survey being one of the hottest summers on record (1998)? but then anyone with half a brain would expect global warming to go through a period of cooling as the Arctic Ice Caps melt, but once they are gone, we have had it!...............
Don't let yourself get talked into it DPJ. There is no scientific proof of man-made climate change, a co-founder of Greenpeace told a committee of the U.S. Senate, rebutting claims made by environmental activists, prominent politicians, and a steady stream of media reports of a nearly unanimous "consensus" among scientists about "overwhelming" evidence that man-made emissions of greenhouse gases — mainly carbon dioxide — are responsible for global warming. "There is no scientific proof that human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are the dominant cause of the minor warming of the Earth's atmosphere over the past 100 years," Patrick Moore said in his prepared remarks to members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Tuesday. A Canadian ecologist and business consultant, Moore was a co-founder of the environmental activist group Greenpeace as a Ph.D. student in 1971. Moore left the group in 1986, after it made what he described as a "sharp turn to the political left " and began espousing policies he could not longer support, though opposition to global warming was not then among them. "Climate change was not an issue when I abandoned Greenpeace, but it certainly is now," Moore said. But increases in the earth's surface and atmospheric temperatures are nothing new, he reminded the senators, as he noted little correlation between increases in carbon dioxide emissions and a heating of the planet. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, he noted, has declared it "extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming trend since the mid-20th century. "
We always were in one form or another , what the climate doesn't do for us you can guarantee a world war will.
I'm not getting sucked into anything, but the sceptics are day dreaming, denial is not an option. US Navy researchers have predicted an ice-free Arctic by 2016. Whichever year the phenomenon begins, it will be the first time humans have existed on Earth without year-round sea ice in the Arctic, and scientists warn that this is when "abrupt climate change" passes the point of no return Did the Tory Party master mind the unprecedented flooding this year in Britain, Did the White house bring about the storms and drought in the USA, did the Japanese conspire to produce the tsunami that destroyed their Nuclear power station? Yes it's all a figment of my imagination, if you cannot see that the worlds weather patterns are showing clear signs of disruption and extremes then you are an ostrich with his head in the sand................
I'm gonna let you in on a little secret Phil. Remember how the hole in the ozone layer was going to kill us all (that's what I was told in school), ever wonder what happened to all those scientists who got it so spectacularly wrong? they moved on to global warming. What you may have began to notice recently is that these people now mention a rise in sea water acidity every time they talk about 'global warming', know why? because that is going to be the next big thing that is going to kill everyone after the whole global warming thing falls apart, ie their next cash-cow. Don't for one minute think these scientists are impartial. The more they scare you the more they get paid - simple.
It's still happening whether man made or not, that's a fact. And we're certainly not helping! Succinctly put RJ
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world's most authoritative voice on climate science, whose reports influence policy and planning decisions of national governments across the world, has just released its latest report. The IPCC has been accused by much of the scientific community of having a starkly conservative bias? Paul Beckwith, a climatology and meteorology professor at the University of Ottawa, Canada, stated: "Within a year or two, the open water duration [no sea ice] will last for several months, and within a decade or so the positive feedbacks will likely clear out the Arctic Ocean basin for most of the year." Beckwith, an engineer and physicist who is also researching abrupt climate change in both present day and in the paleo records of the deep past, warns that losing the Arctic sea ice will create a state that "will represent a very different planet, with a much higher global average temperature, as much as 5 to 6 degrees C warmer within a few decades, in which snow and ice in the northern hemisphere becomes very rare or even vanishes year round." "As the planet transitions through this abrupt climate change, there will be wrenching turmoil and conflict for human civilizations." - Beckwith
Skin cancer is on the increase, why is that? The ozone layer above the Antarctic has been particularly impacted by pollution since the mid-1980s. This region’s low temperatures speed up the conversion of CFCs to chlorine. In the southern spring and summer, when the sun shines for long periods of the day, chlorine reacts with ultraviolet rays, destroying ozone on a massive scale, up to 65 percent. This is what some people erroneously refer to as the "ozone hole." In other regions, the ozone layer has deteriorated by about 20 percent. About 90 percent of CFCs currently in the atmosphere were emitted by industrialized countries in the Northern Hemisphere, including the United States and Europe. These countries banned CFCs by 1996, and the amount of chlorine in the atmosphere is falling now. But scientists estimate it will take another 50 years for chlorine levels to return to their natural levels.
I'm still waiting for the loonies to announce the recent floods were down to climate change. Those floods were a result of the unusual position of the jet stream and arseholes building houses on floodplain. As for food shortages, that will happen as a direct result of the world being over populated.
Because there are a lot of sad twats who spend far too much time under sun beds or in the sun burning to a crisp.
The thickness of the ice increased recently and increased in length, but they don't publish that. Anyway it was warmer in Britain during the Roman occupation era.
In another 4 billion years our sun will become a red giant and swallow the inner planets up. That's what I call climate change.
What we've done , in just over a century , to the earth doesn't bode well for the next century .I'm not worried for my kids , but there kids could be well be in for survivalist times . Apparently having ones head buried in the sand isn't reserved for football fans.
