Human activities causing World to warm

Human activities causing World to warm



Feb 2007 - Changes in the 
atmosphere, the oceans, glaciers and ice caps show 
unequivocally that the Earth is warming, according to the 
first global assessment of climate change science in six 
years. 
The report confirms that the observed increase in atmospheric 
concentrations of greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane, 
and nitrous oxide since 1750 is the result of human 
activities. 
Greenhouse gases rise into the air from Russia’s largest 
coal-fired power plant, Reftinskaya GRES.  
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, concludes 
that advances in climate modeling and the collection and 
analysis of data now give scientists 90 percent confidence in 
their understanding of how human activities are causing the 
world to warm. 
This level of confidence is much greater than what could be 
achieved in 2001 when the IPCC issued its last assessment. 
Introducing the report today in Paris, Dr. Susan Solomon, an 
American atmospheric chemist, said it is "very likely," a 90 
percent probability, that most of the observed increase in 
temperatures is due to the observed increase in greenhouse gas 
concentrations. 
Dr. Susan Solomon works with the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration at with the University of Colorado 
at Boulder.  
The 2001 assessment said it was "likely," a probability of 66 
percent. 
The rapid rise in global concentrations of carbon dioxide, 
methane and nitrous oxide, all greenhouse gases, is so 
different from the patterns for thousands of years previous, 
"there is no doubt that increase is dominated by human 
activity," said Solomon, who helped to identify the mechanism 
that created the Antarctic ozone hole. 
IPCC Chairman Dr. R.K. Pachauri of India called the entire 
process of preparing the document, the first of four to be 
released this year by the panel, "a unique example of science 
in the service of society." 
He said 600 authors from 40 countries worked on the report, 
which was then assessed by 600 reviewers. Over the past 
several days, the whole thing was discussed by 300 delegations 
from 113 countries meeting in Paris. 
IPCC Chairman Dr. R.K. Pachauri  
"This is the strength of the IPCC process," said Dr. Pachauri. 
The scientists provide the knowledge, this is discussed and 
adopted by governments. It provides credibility." 
The report describes an accelerating transition to a warmer 
world marked by more extreme temperatures, heat waves, new 
wind patterns, worsening drought in some regions, heavier 
precipitation in others, melting glaciers and Arctic ice, and 
rising global average sea levels. 
For the first time, the report provides evidence that the ice 
sheets of Antarctica and Greenland are losing mass and 
contributing to sea level rise. 
An even greater degree of warming would likely have occurred 
if emissions of pollution particles and other aerosols had not 
offset some of the impact of greenhouse gases, by reflecting 
sunlight back out to space, the scientists said. 
Solomon said the concentrations of greenhouse gases already in 
the atmosphere will continue to warm the planet for centuries, 
even if humans stabilize emissions within the next 10 years. 
"This report by the IPCC represents the most rigorous and 
comprehensive assessment possible of the current state of 
climate science and has considerably narrowed the 
uncertainties of the 2001 report," said Michel Jarraud, 
secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization, 
WMO. 
Michel Jarraud, secretary general of the World Meteorological 
Organization  
"While the conclusions are disturbing, decision makers are now 
armed with the latest facts and will be better able to respond 
to these realities," Jarraud said. 
"The speed with which melting ice sheets are raising sea 
levels is uncertain, but the report makes clear that sea 
levels will rise inexorably over the coming centuries. It is a 
question of when and how much, and not if," he said. 
"In our daily lives we all respond urgently to dangers that 
are much less likely than climate change to affect the future 
of our children," said Achim Steiner, executive director of 
the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, which, 
together with the WMO, established the Intergovernmental Panel 
on Climate Change in 1988. 
": The Physical 
Science Basis" – will be published by Cambridge University 
Press. 
The Working Group II report on climate impacts and adaptation 
will be launched in Brussels on April 6. 
The Working Group III report on mitigation will be launched in 
Bangkok on May 4. 
A Synthesis Report will be adopted in Valencia, Spain on 
November 16. Dr. Pachauri says this 30 page synthesis of the 
three Working Group reports will make it possible for a prime 
minister, a president or a CEO to understand it during a train 
ride from Paris to Brussels or wherever they are travelling. 
Together, the four volumes will make up the IPCC’s fourth 
assessment report. Previous reports were published in 1990, 
1995 and 2001.

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