IPCC Releases Climate Assessment

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firebroad

firebroad

Minister of Fire
Nov 18, 2011
1,511
Carroll County, MD
Today the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its fifth assessment on climate change. The findings are not surprising but sobering nonetheless. Even if you don't have time to look over the whole report, I encourage you to read the "headlines" document linked below, which will give you a pretty good understanding of the findings of hundreds of scientists from around the world on the causes and effects of climate change.

(broken link removed to http://www.ipcc.ch/news_and_events/docs/ar5/ar5_wg1_headlines.pdf)

(broken link removed to http://www.ipcc.ch/news_and_events/docs/ar5/press_release_ar5_wgi_en.pdf)
http://www.climatechange2013.org/
 
firebroad said:
Today the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its fifth assessment on climate change. The findings are not surprising but sobering nonetheless. Even if you don't have time to look over the whole report, I encourage you to read the "headlines" document linked below, which will give you a pretty good understanding of the findings of hundreds of scientists from around the world on the causes and effects of climate change.

(broken link removed to http://www.ipcc.ch/news_and_events/docs/ar5/ar5_wg1_headlines.pdf)

(broken link removed to http://www.ipcc.ch/news_and_events/docs/ar5/press_release_ar5_wgi_en.pdf)
http://www.climatechange2013.org/
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting.
I just couldn't bring myself to "like" the post given the bad news presented.
 
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Yes I have been listening to this being discussed on the radio. Haven't heard the good news light at the end of the tunnel yet. Actually seems pretty damn grim overall, there was a short piece about Australia being in line for some serious temp increases. Makes sense with them being such a large land mass in the southern hemisphere with very little elevation (mountains) to buffer the temp increases.
 
I don't think there is any good news at the end of the tunnel, and I can't imagine anyone tearing up any macadam to plant more trees to combat the CO2 levels. A friend of mine once said, back in the day when we were worried about the Bomb, "We aren't going to blow ourselve up; we will foul ourselves out of existance." 40 years later and she is still right.
 
begreen said:
The atmosphere and the oceans are a huge weather machine that will take a very long time to purge. I think the expression is, we chit the bed.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/h...lobal-warming-set-to-soar-20130928-2ula0.html
Click to expand...

I like to tell myself that as the CO2 conc rises, the rate at which various sinks absorb it goes up (almost) proportionately. IOW, to get the rate of increase to go to zero, we do NOT have to go to zero CO2 emissions (which is awful hard to imagine). I have never seen an exact figure, but if we dropped our CO2 emissions by 50-70%, the rate of further increase would be nearly zero (for at least a human lifetime or so). Might not want to live indefinitely at the current CO2 conc, thus the '350.org' moniker, but still, a world with the near current, constant CO2 and modest use of fossil carbon seems technologically and geologically feasible.
 
But geek, even if we cut our use 70% and the increase goes to zero, those "sinks" include the ocean which would continue to get more acidic, and thus the species die off would continue to worsen. Don't we have to actually get to the point of reducing the carbon, not just in the air but in the sinks as well?

Doug... sometimes I need a Doug to English dictionary - what where you trying to say? ;)
 
Not an expert in the ocean acidification problem, but I thought the surface was in equilibrium at the current CO2, and that CO2/acid was getting pumped into deeper layers. I guess there are multiple timescales for circulation, with an upper level one measured in decades, and a deeper one that is more like 1000 years. If we could clamp the current atmospheric conc at 400 ppm, its not clear that the ocean acidification problem would get steadily worse (at least not on timescales shorter than a century). But of course I dunno.
 
jharkin said:
But geek, even if we cut our use 70% and the increase goes to zero, those "sinks" include the ocean which would continue to get more acidic, and thus the species die off would continue to worsen. Don't we have to actually get to the point of reducing the carbon, not just in the air but in the sinks as well?

Doug... sometimes I need a Doug to English dictionary - what where you trying to say? ;)
Click to expand...
thought somebody might have seen the story about the meteo who related he was so distraught at the latest report the he would no longer fly commercial and was getting a vasectomy. his timing seems perfect. .http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/27/eric-holthaus-twitter_n_4005003.html
 
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Well, there's still that 5% chance or whatever......that it's not man-made.
Never give up hope.....::-)

It's still a theory. But I bet if most folks had a terrible disease and a medicine offered a 95% success rate, they'd jump on it. The FDA allows stuff with only a 10-30% effectiveness.
 
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This is a pretty graphic illustration of what is happening with climate change. The largest calving event ever recorded with a scale that is totally, enormously epic.

http://www.wimp.com/glaciercalving/
 
Very sobering, and the question again rises, is what I do or not do relative to climate change going to make any difference? Perhaps not on a global scale, but it may influence others to also take action, and there is a possibility of a sea change in culture (pun intended). We are putting in a solar voltaic system that will have a visual impact on a neighbor. A few years ago I would have been surprised if the neighbor would not have complained. When I explained the system earlier this summer, the neighbor quickly said no problem. We do influence others, the change may be slow, but it is change, and each one of us can do something.
 
Records are starting to fall pretty regularly. Locally central OR had an all time record warmest summer this year. And we set the record for the rainiest Sept.
 
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