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Too late? Why scientists say we should expect the worst of global warming

Source: The Guardian

Dec 09, 2008

Summary

At a high-level academic conference on global warming at Exeter University this summer, climate scientist Kevin Anderson stood before his expert audience and contemplated a strange feeling. He wanted to be wrong. Many of those in the room who knew what he was about to say felt the same. His conclusions had already caused a stir in scientific and political circles. Even committed green campaigners said the implications left them terrified.

Anderson, an expert at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at Manchester University, was about to send the gloomiest dispatch yet from the frontline of the war against climate change.

Despite the political rhetoric, the scientific warnings, the media headlines and the corporate promises, he would say, carbon emissions were soaring way out of control - far above even the bleak scenarios considered by last year's report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Stern review. The battle against dangerous climate change had been lost, and the world needed to prepare for things to get very, very b

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Comments (6)

Jbond,

Dec 09, 2008

Enjoy it while you can

Caermon,

Dec 09, 2008

Fortunately, not all the scientists back the erroneous conclusions of Anderson and his ilk. Unfortunately, those scientists are ignored or sneered at. Even more unfortunate is the fact that the media has bought into the global warming hoax simply to sell ads. It makes the media money when the people are scared.

Jbond,

Dec 09, 2008

What is it with climate change deniers?

Caermon,

Dec 09, 2008

I'm not denying it. I'm a skeptic. There is too much evidence that global warming is not the looming disaster that the IPCC and the media hungry scientists say that it is. I will start to believe when their computer model can take the climate conditions we had 100 years ago and predict the climate as it is today. Besides, there is a growing body of evidence that the "climate change" everyone is scared of will be a new ice age. If that's true, we're going to wish for some warming.

Jbond,

Dec 10, 2008

I'm all for skepticism. It's a healthy attitude. But the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence is that climate change is real, something is happening, and it's almost certainly man made. Me, I'm deeply skeptical of the groups trying to deny this since they all seem to have a major vested interest in maintaining the status quo and doing nothing. Unfortunately it's an emotive subject with the world's economy at stake. Which is not a good environment for practicing the scientific method of looping round measure - hypothesis - test - adjust. This normally gets de-railed by personal scientific reputation. Now its getting de-railed by hugely influential lobbyists and governments.

Wayne Smallman,

Dec 10, 2008

Take a core sample from almost anywhere in the world. Study the chemical composition of the soils from the different periods, all the way from the distant path through to the emergence of man and you WILL see a marked and pronounced SPIKE in carbon, as well as a variety of other chemicals.

Each period in human history is marked by the presence of a particular metal. During the Roman period, it was lead. During the Iron age, I'll leave you to guess.

We have changed this planet simply by getting on with our lives.

Fact...