Experts: Earth Warming Faster; A Trigger for 'Dangerous' Change?Reuters: Global warming is likely to overshoot a 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) rise seen by the European Union and many developing nations as a trigger for 'dangerous' change, a Reuters poll of scientists showed on Tuesday.
Nine of 11 experts, who were among authors of the final summary by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 (IPCC), also said the evidence that mankind was to blame for climate change had grown stronger in the past two years...
Ten of 11 experts said it was at best 'unlikely' -- or less than a one-third chance -- that the world would manage to limit warming to a 2 degree Celsius rise above pre-industrial levels.
'Scientifically it can be done. But it's unlikely given the level of political will,' said Salemeel Huq at the International Institute for Environment and Development in London. And David Karoly, of the University of Melbourne, said the world was 'very unlikely' to reach the goal.
'The concentration of long-lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is already enough to cause warming of more than 2C above pre-industrial levels, and we are continuing to emit more and more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere,' he said.
San Francisco Chronicle: Tinkering with Earth's climate to chill runaway global warming -- a radical idea once dismissed out of hand -- is being discussed by the White House as a potential emergency option, the president's new science adviser said...
That's because global warming is happening so rapidly, John Holdren told The Associated Press... His concern is that the United States and other nations won't slow global warming fast enough and that several 'tipping points' could be fast approaching. Once such milestones are reached... it increases chances of 'really intolerable consequences,' he said...
Holdren compared global warming to being 'in a car with bad brakes driving toward a cliff in the fog.' He and many experts believe that warming of a few degrees more could lead to disastrous drought conditions and food shortages in some regions, rising seas and more powerful coastal storms in others...
Those efforts are racing against three tipping points he cited: Earth could be as close as six years away from the loss of Arctic summer sea ice, and that has the potential of altering the climate in unforeseen ways. Other elements that could dramatically speed up climate change include the release of frozen methane from thawing permafrost in Siberia, and more and bigger wildfires worldwide.
Image: A mountain is reflected in a bay that used to be covered by the Sheldon glacier on the Antarctic peninsula, January 14, 2009. The glacier has shrunk by about 2 km since 1989. (Reuters/Alister Doyle); source here.
