Today, the report that I talked about in my last blog was released. The depressing thing? The report says that no matter how much civilization slows or reduces its greenhouse gas emissions, global warming and sea level rise will continue on for centuries.
This report was called a “very impressive document that goes several steps beyond previous research.” Another find: Scientists are 90% certain that global warming is caused by man. (especially burning of fossil fuels) So to anybody that says global warming is a “natural cycle” and shouldn’t be considered a big deal: This piece of information makes it pretty much impossible to say natural forces are to blame.
Kevin Trenberth, director of climate analysis for the National Center for Atmospheric Research said:
“This is just not something you can stop. We’re just going to have to live with it. We’re creating a different planet. If you were to come up back in 100 years time, we’ll have a different climate.”
“We’re going to have to live with it” is a phrase that is going to be important in coming years. Adaptation was a word we had to discuss in our chapter homework- it is necessary to adjust to the new conditions. Adaptation is most critical in poor regions because they have the least access to natural resources and don’t have the means to protect themselves from any problems due to changes in climate.
But we shouldn’t give up completely. Kevin Trenberth said that scientists worry that leaders will take the message in the wrong way. The scientists urged leaders to reduce emissions and also adapt to a warmer world with wilder weather.
It should be interesting to see if this report will have any effect on Bush’s policy concerning greenhouse gas emissions.
abbyr said
I posted on the same report. It is very sad that the even if we work on pollution control now the temperature and sea levels are going to rise for centuries. And thats if we started controlling it right now.
sgoetz said
This article clarified a lot of confusion for me! I was talked to some of my friends about APES, and one of them said that global warming was a completely natural cycle and that there’s no way for man to stop it. He gave the example of how the climate has increased since the Ice Age. That kind of confused me, because what he said made some sense, but then I couldn’t help thinking about what I learned in APES. Though from this blog I concluded that some of global warming is natural, most of it is man-made. Thanks for the clarification!
paigegius08 said
Sometimes the phrase, “better late than never” applies in certain situations. But if it took the UN this long to release a report saying that global warming is man-made, how long is it going to take us to take action? Will it be too late by the time we finally do something? I agree with you, Camille, it will be very interesting to see what Bush does on this matter. There’s a big crisis in Iraq right now, but if we don’t attend to the global warming crisis, there won’t be an Iraq to worry about. (or a United States for that matter.)
mary alice acton said
As I was blogging about my Superbowl article, this U.N. report came up. All it said about it though was the percentage of human activity that has effected global warming. I’m glad that you posted on this report so that I could become more knowledeable on some of the other things that were brought up. While it sounds like no matter what we do now to prevent global warming, it’s still going to happen anyways, the thing is whatever we do now will make a difference even if it doesn’t stop global warming. Regardless, we all need to become more conscientious of how we live so that we can make a difference.