Time for debate- Over

The time to act is upon us.

 

The IPCC report is released today.  An article and 'Summary for Policymakers'.

[The report] has been compiled by 130 leading climate change scientists based on the work of thousands of scientists and is expected to show that the debate over whether human activities are causing climate change is all but over.

"We can be very confident that the net effect of human activity since 1750 has been one of warming," co-lead author Dr Susan Soloman told delegates at the conference in Paris designed to finalise and release the report.

The report states that it is over 90 percent certain that human activities are causing warming in the climate and that further emissions of greenhouse gases will accelerate global warming. It also claims that positive feedback effects caused by the oceans and forests becoming less adept at absorbing carbon as temperatures rises could drive temperatures still higher.

The report concludes that temperatures will probably increase by between 1.8 and 4C by 2100, though they could climb by as little as 1.1C and as much as 6.4C, which would result in catastrophic effects such as major droughts and sea level rises.

The scientists behind the report hope it will underpin the debate at both the G8 Summit and the next round of UN climate talks in Indonesia later in the year...

The debate at that summit can only now be about what to do, not whether to act.

GP