IT’S GETTING HARDER TO DENY EVERY DAY

Evidence for man-made climate change getting stronger: U.N.

Alister Doyle, November 29, 2012 (Reuters via Chicago Tribune)

“Evidence that global warming is man-made is getting stronger, the head of a U.N. panel of climate scientists [Rajendra Pachauri] said, in a further blow to skeptics who argue rising temperatures can be explained by natural variations…The influential U.N. climate panel said the probability human activity was the main cause of climate change was ‘at least 90 percent’ in its last report in 2007…[and is expected to] raise the level of that likelihood even higher in its next report, due in 2013…

“Rising sea levels pose a particular threat to people living in low-lying areas, from Bangladesh to the cities of New York, London and Buenos Aires. They open up the risk of storm surges, coastal erosion and, in the worst case scenario, complete swamping of large areas of land…The last report by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)…[said sea levels] could rise by between 18 and 59 cm (7-24 inches) by 2100…Those numbers did not take account of a possible acceleration of a melt of Antarctic or Greenland ice…”

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“Some scientists and organizations have questioned whether gases released by industry and other human activity are the main causes of global warming…[and] have also suggested warming may have flattened out…But a study released during the [ a conference in Qatar where 200 nations are trying to reach a deal to cut emissions of greenhouse gases to avert floods, droughts, heat waves and mounting sea levels] backed IPCC projections that temperatures were creeping higher, and sea levels were rising even faster than predicted…

“The Doha talks are struggling to extend the U.N.'s troubled Kyoto Protocol, which binds most developed nations to cut emissions by at least 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12…Russia, Canada and Japan are pulling out, saying it is now time for fast-growing emerging nations led by China and India to take on commitments. Under current plans, a new global deal is meant to be agreed in 2015 and enter into force by 2020…A U.N. conference two years ago agreed to limit any rise in temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6F) above pre-industrial times. But greenhouse gas levels hit a new record in 2011, despite the world economic slowdown.”

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