Environment

Climate change 'more extreme' than feared

by Paul Conneally | October 20, 2008 at 03:44 am

158 views | 4 Recommendations | 6 comments

The WWF warns that climate change is happening faster and is more extreme than feared.

The relatively recent 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is said by the agency to be already out of date.

'Extreme weather events' such as the hot summer of 2003, which caused an extra 35,000 deaths across southern Europe from heat stress and poor air quality, will happen more frequently.

Britain and the North Sea area will be hit more often by violent cyclones and the predicted rise in sea level will double to more than a metre, putting vast coastal areas at risk from flooding.

The bleak report from WWF - formerly the World Wildlife Fund - also predicts crops failures and the collapse of eco systems on both land and sea.

And it calls on the EU to set an example to the rest of the world by agreeing a package of challenging targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions to tackle the consequences of climate change and to keep any increase in global temperatures below 2C.

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campanaro

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 09:21 on October 20th, 2008

LotusFlower, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Peace,
campanaro

Paul Conneally

at 09:25 on October 20th, 2008

thanks for the flag - the severity of the melt and climate change in general is being underplayed by some - including Senator Palin - from Alaska too!

Fairbanks

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 09:35 on October 20th, 2008

It has been severely cold the past two years. This October is colder than any since 1965. Summer showed up three weeks late, which is better than last year when it didn't show up at all. Last winter was more like the winters of 35 years ago with -50 and -60 for extended periods. Sure doesn't look like Global Warming. More like the next Ice Age is on the way if not here already.

. . .

keep any increase in global temperatures below 2C. . .

How about keeping the temperature above zero [Fahenheit of course] It's below zero again today. Last warm year was a decade ago and the ozone hole was always there. And still no sunspots.

campanaro

at 09:33 on October 20th, 2008

LotusFlower,

Your welcome

Yes I agree maybe the ones that need to care will

when they finally realize hiding behind the dollar bill doesn't shelter you

from life and true causes and all the things that matter.

Peace,

campanaro

Joe Mikrut (not verified)

at 10:07 on October 20th, 2008

How about some actual science for a change.....

Weather-satellite scientists David Douglass of the University of Rochester and John Christy of the University of Alabama at Huntsville nonetheless dealt the True Believers a devastating blow last month.

For nearly 30 years, Professor Christy has been in charge of NASA's eight weather satellites that take more than 300,000 temperature readings daily around the globe. In a paper co-written with Dr. Douglass, he concludes that while manmade emissions may be having a slight impact, "variations in global temperatures since 1978 ... cannot be attributed to carbon dioxide."

Using their data, in the past four years the period corresponding to reduced solar activity, all of the rise in global temperatures since 1979 has disappeared.