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Threat Of Global Warming Grows

Posted on: Tuesday, 24 February 2009, 07:50 CST

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change believes the Earth will not have to warm up as much as recently thought to experience the consequences of global warming, including more extreme weather and increasing threats to plants and animals.

Researchers estimated that the risk of problematic severe weather would rise with a global average temperature increase of between 1.8 degrees and 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above 1990 levels.

Researchers point out that "increases in drought, heat waves and floods are projected in many regions and would have adverse impacts, including increased water stress, wildfire frequency and flood risks starting at less than (1.8 degrees) of additional warming above 1990 levels."

Already, the National Climatic Data Center reports that global temperatures have risen 0.22 degree since 1990.

The researchers, led by Joel B. Smith of Stratus Consulting Inc., said, "it is now more likely than not that human activity has contributed to observed increases in heat waves, intense precipitation events, and the intensity of tropical cyclones."

The new report is published in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Researches wrote, “The likelihood of the 2003 heat wave in Europe, which led to the death of tens of thousands of people, was substantially increased by increased greenhouse gas concentrations."

The findings come just a week after Christopher Field of the Carnegie Institution for Science announced during an annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that people are adding carbon to the atmosphere even faster than in the 1990s.

Field said carbon emissions have been increasing at 3.5 percent per year since 2000, up sharply from the 0.9 percent per year in the 1990s.

The new study discovered evidence of greater vulnerability to climate change for certain groups like the poor and elderly.

"For example, events such as Hurricane Katrina and the 2003 European heat wave have shown that the capacity to adapt to climate-related extreme events is lower than expected and, as a result, their consequences and associated vulnerabilities are higher than previously thought," the scientists report.

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On the Net:

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
• National Climatic Data Center
• Stratus Consulting Inc.
• Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
• Carnegie Institution for Science
• AAAS

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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