CLIMATE CHANGE MENU
"You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe."
"You take the red pill and
you stay in Wonderland and
I'll show you how deep the
rabbit-hole goes."
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2001 replaced 1997 as the second hottest year on record.
2002 replaced 2001 as number two.
One of the major concerns with a potential change in climate is that an increase in extreme events will occur. Results of observational studies suggest that in many areas that have been analyzed, changes in total precipitation are amplified at the tails, and changes in some temperature extremes have been observed. Model output has been analyzed that shows changes in extreme events for future climates, such as increases in extreme high temperatures, decreases in extreme low temperatures, and increases in intense precipitation events. In addition, the societal infrastructure is becoming more sensitive to weather and climate extremes, which would be exacerbated by climate change. In wild plants and animals, climate-induced extinctions, distributional and phenological changes, and species' range shifts are being documented at an increasing rate. Several apparently gradual biological changes are linked to responses to extreme weather and climate events.
Ex-oil Lobbyist Watered Down US Climate Research
A former oil industry lobbyist edited the Bush administration's
official policy papers on climate change to play down the link
between greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, it was reported
yesterday.
Documents released by a watchdog group, the Government
Accountability Project, show that as chief of staff for the White
House council on environmental quality, Philip Cooney watered down
government scientific papers on climate change and played up
uncertainties in the scientific literature. Mr Cooney is a law
graduate and has no scientific training.
Not all mitigation efforts need take place on land or
sea. In fact, the most intuitive approach may be simply to reflect
more sunlight back into space, before it can be emitted in heat
radiation and then absorbed by carbon dioxide. People understand the
basic concept readily enough: Black T-shirts are warmer in summer than
white ones. We already know that simply painting buildings white makes
them cooler. We could compensate for the effect of all greenhouse gas
emissions since the Industrial Revolution by reflecting less than 1
percent more of the sunlight. More
Scientists Criticize U.S. Reluctance To Acknowledge Climate Change
Evidence of global warming is mounting: The last decade was the warmest in a century, 1998 went down as the hottest year in recorded memory and the trend continues. Scientists estimate that the globe’s average temperature has risen by 0.6 degrees Celsius (1.08 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. More
All you ever wanted to know about climate change
Warmth from the Sun heats the surface of the Earth, which in turn radiates energy back out to space. Some of this outgoing radiation, which is nearly all in the infrared region of the spectrum, is trapped in the atmosphere by so-called greenhouse gases. More
Climate change may lead to war
In 2004, The United States Department of Defence released "An Abrupt
Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States
National Security". Read
more
Climate change speeds up, says U.N.
It warns that the planet is warming up faster than at any time in the last 1,000 years and says the Earth is threatened with catastrophe. The report blames human activity for the rising global temperatures that will bring increases in flooding and droughts that could blight the 21st Century. More
Based on studies of how the earth's weather has changed over the past century as global temperatures edged upward, as well as on sophisticated computer models of climate, it now seems probable that warming will accompany changes in regional weather. For example, longer and more intense heat waves--a likely consequence of an increase in either the mean temperature or in the variability of daily temperatures--would result in public health threats and even unprecedented levels of mortality, as well as in such costly inconveniences as road buckling and high cooling loads, the latter possibly leading to electrical brownouts or blackouts. More
Human-induced warming and associated sea level rise are expected to continue through the 21st century, the group said, and national policy decisions made now will influence the extent of the damage suffered by humans and ecosystems later in this century.
For the FULL STUDYScience Projects Increasingly Extreme Weather
"Our review shows consistency between our climate models and what we have observed in the 20th century. Models of 21st century climate suggest that many of these changes in climate extremes are likely to continue," Easterling said. "We also found that extreme weather events have had increasing impact on human health, welfare, and financial losses. This trend is likely to become more intense in the years to come both as the climate continues to change, and society continues to become more vulnerable to weather and climate extremes." More
Extreme Weather Events Seen Escalating
Global warming is causing the changes in weather patterns, while growing populations and migration to vulnerable areas is increasing the cost of each disaster, said William Cosgrove, vice president of the World Water Council. More
Climate Situation Called "Critical"
by US, UK ExpertsGlobal warming is now changing the world's climate rapidly, and humanity faces a "critical" situation because of it, the chief meteorologists of Britain and the United States warn today in a remarkable joint statement. More
Red Cross: Climate Change Hits Poor Countries Hardest
"Everyone is aware of the environmental problems of global warming and deforestation on the one hand and the social problems of increasing poverty and growing shantytowns on the other," the president of the Red Cross International Federation, Dr. Astrid Heiberg, said. "But when these two factors collide, you have a new scale of catastrophe." More
Trends in U.S. Climate during the Twentieth Century