[Sosfbay-discuss] Chron: Global warming likely man-made, new study finds

[JamBoi]

Global warming likely man-made, new study finds

Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer

Friday, February 2, 2007

(02-02) 09:39 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- An international body of climate
scientists issued somber findings today that even more strongly confirm
that Earth's rising air and ocean temperatures are very likely due to
the increase in emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.

Even if the industrial nations start to immediately reduce emissions of
carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases, the past and future
gases will continue to contribute to global warming and the rise of
oceans for more than 1,000 years, according to a long-awaited report
released in Paris.

"Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from
observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures,
widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level,''
said the report, a summary of four volumes of study representing the
most-up-to-date knowledge on climate change.

The scientists credit improved worldwide computer modeling that confirm
measurements on the ground, satellite data and ice core borings dating
back 650,000 years with helping to build a picture of what has been
happening to the planet. Some of the findings:

-- Arctic temperatures increased at almost twice the global rate in the
past 100 years. The extent of the sea ice has shrunk nearly 3 percent
per decade since 1978. Temperatures in the top layer of permafrost have
increased since the 1980s, and the maximum area covered by seasonally
frozen ground has decreased by about 7 percent in the Northern
Hemisphere since 1900 with a decrease in spring of up to 15 percent.

-- Precipitation has significantly increased in eastern parts of North
and South America, northern Europe and northern and central Asia.
Drying has been seen in the Sahel, the Mediterranean, southern Africa
and parts of southern Asia. Other regions are showing a high
variability in rain and snowfall.

-- Mid-latitude westerly winds have strengthened in both hemispheres
since the 1960s, and more intense and longer droughts have been
observed over wide areas, particularly in the tropics and subtropics,
since the 1970s.

-- Widespread changes in extreme temperatures have been observed over
the last 50 years as cold days, cold nights and frost have become less
frequent, while hot days, hot nights and heat waves have become more
frequent.

Richard Somerville, a climate scientist at Scripps Institution of
Oceanography and a coordinating lead author of a section of the report,
said it seemed likely that these events would "carry on through the
21st century and continue to grow and become more serious as time goes
by.''

The release of the international assessment, heralded by shutting off
lights in the Eiffel Tower for five minutes as the scientists rushed to
finish, comes after six years of work and is built on a previous dozen
years of study by hundreds of researchers from more than 100 nations.
In the next two month, two more bodies of work dealing with different
aspects of climate change will be released.

This part of the fourth assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, or the IPCC, formed by the United Nations' Environment
Program and World Meteorological Organization in 1988 to support a
framework for study approved by the world's nations, including the
United States.

E-mail to Jane Kay at jkay at sfchronicle.com.


___________________

JamBoi
Jammy The Sacred Cow Slayer

"Live humbly, laugh often and love unconditionally" (anon)
http://dailyJam.blogspot.com


 
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