Chuck
06-20-2009, 11:48 AM
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/European_Union_Flag.jpg The global average temperature rose just under 0.8 degrees Celsius from 1850 to 2005. The current warming trend is 0.13 to 0.16 degrees per decade (http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,631262,00.html)
http://www.youtube.com/v/oEp382HIisE&hl=en&fs=1&Volker Mrasek - SPIEGEL (http://www.spiegel.de) - June 18, 2009
WaterWorld? --Ed.
Two degrees -- that value has long been the guideline for international climate policy. Were the increase in average global temperatures held below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), then drastic climate change and long-term irreversible damage -- like the melting of Greenland's glaciers -- could still be avoided. Or so it was thought.
But a new study by an international research team has determined that the two-degree goal is no longer achievable.
Even today's atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are high enough to cause a global increase in temperature of between 2 and 2.4 degrees Celsius. "Drastic and immediate" emissions reductions would be "impossible," the paper, which was presented in Brussels on Thursday, argues. The concentration of these gases will thus continue to increase in upcoming decades. The researchers write: "An overshoot of the atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations needed to constrain global warming to 2 degrees Celsius is thus inevitable."... http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,631262,00.html
http://www.youtube.com/v/oEp382HIisE&hl=en&fs=1&Volker Mrasek - SPIEGEL (http://www.spiegel.de) - June 18, 2009
WaterWorld? --Ed.
Two degrees -- that value has long been the guideline for international climate policy. Were the increase in average global temperatures held below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), then drastic climate change and long-term irreversible damage -- like the melting of Greenland's glaciers -- could still be avoided. Or so it was thought.
But a new study by an international research team has determined that the two-degree goal is no longer achievable.
Even today's atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are high enough to cause a global increase in temperature of between 2 and 2.4 degrees Celsius. "Drastic and immediate" emissions reductions would be "impossible," the paper, which was presented in Brussels on Thursday, argues. The concentration of these gases will thus continue to increase in upcoming decades. The researchers write: "An overshoot of the atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations needed to constrain global warming to 2 degrees Celsius is thus inevitable."... http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,631262,00.html