UN panel finds 'unequivocal' evidence for global warming

UN panel finds 'unequivocal' evidence for global warming

Interesting that this is being broadcast from the city of the vatican, cool!

From Monsters and Critics.com

Nature News
UN panel finds 'unequivocal' evidence for global warming
By DPA
Feb 2, 2007, 11:29 GMT

Paris - Human activity is unequivocably driving climate change and unless it is modified, it will cause temperatures to rise by as much as 6.4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in a report issued Friday in Paris.

'Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea levels,' the United Nations-overseen IPCC said in a summary of the lengthy report,

The report, entitled Climate Change 2007, also known as the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), was made public after a four-day meeting of ICPP scientists in the French capital.

Eleven of the past 12 years (1995-2006) rank among the warmest years on record of global temperatures, the report noted, and concluded, 'Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.'

The report continued, 'Global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750 and now far exceed pre- industrial values.'

The increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are primarily due to the use of fossil fuels, the report said, while those of methane and nitrous oxide were primarily due to agriculture.

'Continued greenhouse gas emissions at or above current rates would cause further warming and induce many changes in the global climate system during the 21st century that would very likely be larger than those observed during the 20th century,' the report continued.

According to several estimates, these changes will raise global temperatures by an average of 1.1 to 6.4 degrees, depending on the scenario used by the scientists.

As a result or rising temperatures, glaciers and snow cover have decreased in both hemispheres, with glacier and ice-cap melt leading to a rise in sea levels, the report said.

In addition, 'Numerous long-term changes in climate have been observed,' the IPCC noted.

These include changes in Arctic temperatures and ice, precipitation amounts, ocean salinity, wind patterns and aspects of extreme weather, including droughts and the intensity of tropical cyclones.

Arctic temperatures increased at almost twice the global average rate in the past 100 years, the report said, while satellite data since 1978 reveal that the extent of the Arctic sea ice has shrunk by 2.7 per cent per decade on the average.

According to Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), as a result of the report, 'February 2, 2007 will be remembered as the date when the question mark was removed from the question, if human activity had anything to do with climate change.'

Steiner told reporters in Paris that the report must produce the 'shift from doubting to having to act ... Science is now unequivocal, but it is looking for an unequivocal commitment from policy-makers.'

Calling the ICPP report 'an extraordinary scientific consensus that climate change is already upon us, and that human activities are its cause,' the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) demanded, 'Governments must negotiate deeper emission cuts for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.'

The IPCC report was produced by some 600 authors from 40 countries. More than 620 expert reviewers and a large number of government reviewers also participated.

© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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