A two degree centigrade warming of the globe above pre-industrial levels would have serious, some might say devastating, effects across the globe, with a range of serious consequences from weather disruptions to increased droughts (and floods) to extinctions to … It is not a pretty picture. And, we are essentially guaranteed to hit that level of warming, even if hopefully as a peak, even if we significant change our fossil-foolish polluting ways.
Yet again, scientists are finding that the models have been wrong, again finding that they have provided too optimistic a situation. The Global Carbon Project just released work that suggests that this rosy scenario of a two-degree warming is something that might be becoming impossible, as their world suggests a six-degree centigrade (nearly 11 degree F) global warming is a more likely result by the end of the century.
Quoted in the Independent, Mark Lynas, author of Six Degrees,
rise in temperatures of this magnitude “would catapult the planet into an extreme greenhouse state not seen for nearly 100 million years, when dinosaurs grazed on polar rainforests and deserts reached into the heart of Europe”.
He said: “It would cause a mass extinction of almost all life and probably reduce humanity to a few struggling groups of embattled survivors clinging to life near the poles.”
The scientists found not just rising human emissions but decreasing ability of the natural systems to soak up humanity’s excesses, thus leading to an even greater escalation of atmospheric carbon loads.
“If the [Copenhagen] agreement is too weak, or the commitments not respected, it is not 2.5C or 3C we will get: it’s 5C or 6C – that is the path we’re on. The timescales here are extremely tight for what is needed to stabilise the climate
Earlier this year, columnist George Will sparked controversy with claims that global ice levels were the same as (if not greater than) 30 years earlier. This was part of George Will’s retread truthiness and deception in his widely syndicated columns falsely asserting that global warming is not happening. Thus, the question asked here: will George Will actually write something factual and perhaps cover this news from actual scientists?
See also:
New record temperatures all the time: of course George Will and deniers will write about this!
Will George Will’s next column highlight this?
1 response so far ↓
1 ClimateGate reveals nefarious conspiracy! // Nov 21, 2009 at 10:52 pm
[…] Have to say, it would really be great news to find out that global warming isn’t happening, that we don’t need to be waiting with bated breath for the George Will column examining (actually, likely distorting) the lat…. […]