02-03-2007
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just released their latest sobering assessment of climate change. This is a global group run by the United Nations and representing more than 2,000 scientists from organizations such as NASA and Britain's Royal Society.
Their every-five-years analyses are considered the definitive, "middle of the road" account of the remorseless progress of global warming.
You can download the document here, or read an overview in the New York Times, among many news accounts.
The report states that the existence of global warming is "unequivocal" (but we knew that already, right?). Man-made emissions are "almost certainly" a primary cause.
Keep in mind that this is a very conservative document, as these authors and scientists all had to agree on the language (thus edging out worst-case scenarios that may happen, yet everyone could not agree upon).
The report predicts that unchecked increases in carbon dioxide emissions will result in global average temperature increases from 3.5 to eight degrees Fahrenheit.
What we are witnessing now, unprecedented melting of Greenland, the polar ice caps, and the world's glaciers; non-existent winters throughout significant parts of the Western world, really bad heat waves, the whole nine yards, is with an aggregate temperature increase of only about one degree Fahrenheit.
So what happens when the temperature increase quadruples or more?
The upside is that the report urges immediate action, suggesting that we can still do something about global warming. So let's get cracking!