Global Warming, causes and consequences...

[ДЖИГИТ]

A chilling set of three-dimensional images of climate-triggered sea rise flooding into coastal U.S. cities was released this week by the environmental nonprofit group Architecture 2030.

A sea level rise as little as 1 meter could have catastrophic impact along the country's 12,000 miles of coastline, where 53 percent of Americans live, according to the group's pathbreaking scientific analysis.

Such cities as Miami Beach and Hollywood, Fla.; New Orleans; Hampton, Va.; and Point Pleasant, N.J., would have major areas underwater with a sea rise of 1 meter or less. By a 1.5-meter rise, Miami and other Florida communities, along with East Boston, Mass.; Galveston, Texas; and Atlantic City, N.J., are in deep trouble. By 3 meters, San Francisco, New York, Boston, San Diego and Savannah, Ga., fall victim to severe damage. Washington Post (http://www.charlotte.com/409/story/274199.html)

Note: Check out the U.S. flood maps here (http://www.architecture2030.org/current_situation/coastal_impact.html). Click on a location, and you'll get a Google Earth image. Mouse over it, and you'll see what it would look like with a 1.5m sea level rise.

This is how NY might look like in near future:

[stanford]

Climate changes have always happened, and looks like we can't do anything about it except watching.

[ДЖИГИТ]

Climate changes have always happened, and looks like we can't do anything about it except watching.

It happened before, but not in this scale, I guess you watched The Inconvenient Truth. There are people who argue that it's a natural process and it's not unique, but give me a brake, it is unique, the scale of warming more than unique, it is alarming. And humans will and can do something, but after cities in the developed countries, like NY, Miami and others would be hit by flooding or other natural disaster. It is real and most people can't foresee it. They think we'll get over it or the would not be hit by disaster.

[ferghaner]

well, people should have thought abt it long before, but i guess back then they weren't that wise or didn't wanna take the warning cos they were blinded by money. this materialism is gonna take human beings to the ultimate catastrophe. damn it. in G8 summit in germany, all presidents, ministers and other representatives agreed to decrease the environmental pollution caused by industries except USA and no one could say anything to Bush. he said USA can't decrease it and that's it. if i were there, i wud kick him on the ass. well, 25% of total pollution on the world is USA's portion. so there can be no remedy if USA, first of all, doesn't start to think abt it. it's fair if they get the biggest damages from this Global Warming. it's wut i think...

i don't agree with stanford, cos either ways time will pass. so why not trying to cure the itch?

[ДЖИГИТ]

Arctic ice loss: Northwest Passage now open, says space agency

PARIS (AFP) - The Northwest Passage, the dreamed-of yet historically impassable maritime shortcut between Europe and Asia, has now fully opened up due to record shrinkage of Arctic sea ice, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Friday.

It released a mosaic of images, taken in early September by a radar aboard its Envisat satellite, which showed that ice retreat in the Arctic had reached record levels since satellite monitoring began in 1978.

"We have seen the ice-covered area drop to just around three million square kilometres (1.158 million square miles), which is about one million square kilometres (386,000 sq. miles) less than the previous minima of 2005 and 2006," said Leif Toudal Pedersen of the Danish National Space Centre.
"There has been a reduction of the ice cover over the last 10 years of about 100 000 sq. km. (38,600 sq. miles) per year on average, so a drop of one million sq. km. (386,000 sq. miles) in just one year is extreme."
AFP (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070914/sc_afp/climatewarmingarctic_070914185341;_ylt=Ai5giwfSiYH jhIVi6tNzrjNrAlMA)

Here's the ESA release (http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMYTC13J6F_index_1.html), with photos.

[ДЖИГИТ]

Rising seas likely to flood U.S. history

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Sun Sep 23, 1:14 AM ET

Ultimately, rising seas will likely swamp the first American settlement in
Jamestown, Va., as well as the Florida launch pad that sent the first American into orbit, many climate scientists are predicting.

In about a century, some of the places that make America what it is may be slowly erased.

Global warming — through a combination of melting glaciers, disappearing ice sheets and warmer waters expanding — is expected to cause oceans to rise by one meter, or about 39 inches. It will happen regardless of any future actions to curb greenhouse gases, several leading scientists say. And it will reshape the nation.

Rising waters will lap at the foundations of old money Wall Street and the new money towers of Silicon Valley. They will swamp the locations of big city airports and major interstate highways.

Storm surges worsened by sea level rise will flood the waterfront getaways of rich politicians — the Bushes' Kennebunkport and John Edwards' place on the Outer Banks. And gone will be many of the beaches in Texas and Florida favored by budget-conscious students on Spring Break.

That's the troubling outlook projected by coastal maps reviewed by The Associated Press. The maps, created by scientists at the University of Arizona, are based on data from the U.S. Geological Survey.


continued: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070923/ap_on_sc/rising_seas

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on sea level:
http://tinyurl.com/2df72n (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_sc/storytext/rising_seas/24559090/SIG=10r87rett/*http://tinyurl.com/2df72n)
The U.S. Geological Survey on sea level rise and global warming:
http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/project-pages/cvi/ (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_sc/storytext/rising_seas/24559090/SIG=11hais7gd/*http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/project-pages/cvi/)
University of Arizona's interactive maps on sea level rise:
http://tinyurl.com/ca73h (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_sc/storytext/rising_seas/24559090/SIG=10qvseul2/*http://tinyurl.com/ca73h)
Architecture 2030 study on one-meter sea level rise and cities:
http://www.architecture2030.org/current_situation/coastal_impact.html (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_sc/storytext/rising_seas/24559090/SIG=127j3qb3u/*http://www.architecture2030.org/current_situation/coastal_impact.html)

[Masud]

These are WWF posters. Some examples. below is a link for the whole archive.
http://img.689.ru/creo/14.10.2007/wwf/689.RU_14.jpg
http://img.689.ru/creo/14.10.2007/wwf/689.RU_24.jpg
http://img.689.ru/creo/14.10.2007/wwf/689.RU_21.jpg
http://img.689.ru/creo/14.10.2007/wwf/689.RU_09.jpg
http://img.689.ru/creo/14.10.2007/wwf/689.RU_04.jpg
link (http://rapidshare.com/files/62727374/reklamnye_kartinki_ot_wwf.rar)

[ДЖИГИТ]

October 26, 2007
'Humanity's very survival' is at risk, says UN

Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter The speed at which mankind has used the Earth’s resources over the past 20 years has put “humanity’s very survival” at risk, a study involving 1,400 scientists has concluded.
The environmental audit, for the United Nations, found that each person in the world now requires a third more land to supply his or her needs than the Earth can supply.

Thirty per cent of amphibians, 23 per cent of mammals and 12 per cent of birds are under threat of extinction, while one in ten of the world’s major rivers runs dry every year before it reaches the sea.

The bleak verdict on the environment was issued as an “urgent call for action” by the United Nations Environment Programme, which said that the “point of no return” was fast approaching.

The report was drafted and researched by almost 400 scientists, all experts in their fields, whose findings were subjected to review by another 1,000 of their peers.

Scientists conducting the review, 157 of whom were nominated by 48 governments, were split into groups of expertise for each of the ten chapters of the report. Other experts were selected from more than 50 research centres in 47 countries.

Marion Cheatle, of the programme, said that damage sustained to the environment was of fundamental economic concern, and if unchecked would affect growth. The report assessed the impact on the environment since 1987.

Climate change was identified as one of the most pressing problems but the condition of fresh water supplies, agricultural land and biodiversity were considered to be of equal concern.

The Earth audit

- The world’s population has grown by 34% to 6.7 billion in 20 years
- Annual income per head has grown by 40% to US$8,162
- 73,000km2 of forest is lost across the world each year – 3.5 times the size of Wales
- 75,000 people a year are killed by natural disasters
- Three million die of water-related diseases
- Ten million children under 10 die
- Farmers produce 39% more from their land than in the 1980s
- 60 per cent of the world’s major rivers have been dammed or diverted
- Populations of freshwater fish have declined by 50 per cent in 20 years
- More than half of all cities exceed WHO pollution guidelines

Source: Global Environment Output 2007

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2739926.ece

[ДЖИГИТ]

Crisis feared as U.S. water supplies dry up

Government projects at least 36 states will face shortages within five years

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - An epic drought in Georgia threatens the water supply for millions. Florida doesn’t have nearly enough water for its expected population boom. The Great Lakes (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21494919/#) are shrinking. Upstate New York’s reservoirs have dropped to record lows. And in the West, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is melting faster each year.Across America, the picture is critically clear — the nation’s freshwater supplies can no longer quench its thirst.

The government projects that at least 36 states will face water shortages within five years because of a combination of rising temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess.

“Is it a crisis? If we don’t do some decent water planning, it could be,” said Jack Hoffbuhr, executive director of the Denver-based American Water Works Association.Water managers will need to take bold steps to keep taps flowing, including conservation, recycling, desalination and stricter controls on development.

“We’ve hit a remarkable moment,” said Barry Nelson, a senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The last century was the century of water engineering. The next century is going to have to be the century of water efficiency.”

The price tag for ensuring a reliable water supply could be staggering. Experts estimate that just upgrading pipes to handle new supplies could cost the nation $300 billion over 30 years.

“Unfortunately, there’s just not going to be any more cheap water,” said Randy Brown, Pompano Beach’s utilities director.

Global issue

It’s not just America’s problem — it’s global.
Australia is in the midst of a 30-year dry spell, and population growth in urban centers of sub-Saharan Africa is straining resources. Asia has 60 percent of the world’s population but only about 30 percent of its fresh water.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21494919/#), a United Nations network of scientists, said this year that by 2050 up to 2 billion people worldwide could be facing major water shortages.

The U.S. used more than 148 trillion gallons of water in 2000, the latest figures available from the U.S. Geological Survey. That includes residential, commercial, agriculture, manufacturing and every other use — almost 500,000 gallons per person.

Coastal states like Florida and California face a water crisis not only from increased demand, but also from rising temperatures that are causing glaciers to melt and sea levels to rise. Higher temperatures mean more water lost to evaporation. And rising seas could push saltwater into underground sources of freshwater.

Florida represents perhaps the nation’s greatest water irony. A hundred years ago, the state’s biggest problem was it had too much water. But decades of dikes, dams and water diversions have turned swamps into cities.

Wasted water

Little land is left to store water during wet seasons, and so much of the landscape has been paved over that water can no longer penetrate the ground in some places to recharge aquifers. As a result, the state is forced to flush millions of gallons of excess into the ocean to prevent flooding.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21494919/

[ДЖИГИТ]

Tennessee town has run out of water

By GREG BLUESTEIN
Associated Press Writer

ORME, Tenn. --

As twilight falls over this Tennessee town, Mayor Tony Reames drives up a dusty dirt road to the community's towering water tank and begins his nightly ritual in front of a rusty metal valve.With a twist of the wrist, he releases the tank's meager water supply, and suddenly this sleepy town is alive with activity. Washing machines whir, kitchen sinks fill and showers run.

About three hours later, Reames will return and reverse the process, cutting off water to the town's 145 residents.

The severe drought tightening like a vise across the Southeast has threatened the water supply of cities large and small, sending politicians scrambling for solutions. But Orme, about 40 miles west of Chattanooga and 150 miles northwest of Atlanta, is a town where the worst-case scenario has already come to pass: The water has run out.

The mighty waterfall that fed the mountain hamlet has been reduced to a trickle, and now the creek running through the center of town is dry.
Three days a week, the volunteer fire chief hops in a 1961 fire truck at 5:30 a.m. - before the school bus blocks the narrow road - and drives a few miles to an Alabama fire hydrant. He meets with another truck from nearby New Hope, Ala. The two drivers make about a dozen runs back and forth, hauling about 20,000 gallons of water from the hydrant to Orme's tank.

"I'm not God. I can't make it rain. But I'll get you the water I can get you," Reames tells residents.

Between 6 and 9 every evening, the town scurries. Residents rush home from their jobs at the carpet factories outside town to turn on washing machines. Mothers start cooking supper. Fathers fill up water jugs. Kids line up to take showers.

"You never get used to it," says Cheryl Evans, a 55-year-old who has lived in town all her life. "When you're used to having water and you ain't got it, it's strange. I can't tell you how many times I've turned on the faucet before remembering the water's been cut."

"You have to be in a rush," she says. "At 6 p.m., I start my supper, turn on my washer, fill all my water jugs, take my shower."

During its peak in the 1930s, Orme (rhymes with "storm") boasted a population of thousands, a jail, three schools and a hotel. But those boom times are long gone.

After the coal miners went on strike in the 1940s, the company shut down the mine and the town has never been the same. Not a single business is left in Orme. The only reminder of the town's glory days is an aging wooden rail depot that sits three feet above the eerily quiet streets.

Although changes are coming - cable TV arrived just a few years ago - cell phones still don't work there. The main road into town is barely wide enough for two cars to pass one another. Dogs wander the streets, farm animals can be heard all around town, and kids gather outside the one-room City Hall to ride their bikes.

"It's like walking back in time. It's Never-Never Land here," says Ernie Dawson, a 47-year-old gospel singer who grew up in Orme.
Water restrictions in Orme are nothing new. But residents say it's never been this bad.

Even last summer, as the water supply dwindled, city leaders cut off water only at night. But in August, Reames took the most extreme step yet and restricted use to three hours a day.

Elected in December, he has now spent $8,000 of the city's $13,000 annual budget to deal with the crisis. Most of the money went toward trucking water from Alabama.

He has tried to fill the gaps with modest fundraisers, but it hasn't been easy. A Halloween carnival last week cleared about $375 and a dog show two weeks ago made $300.

The town has received a $377,590 emergency grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that Reames hopes will be Orme's salvation. A utility crew is laying a 2 1/2-mile pipe to connect Orme to the Bridgeport, Ala., water supply. The work could be finished by Thanksgiving.
"It's not a short-term solution," Reames says. "It is THE solution."
He says the crisis in Orme could serve as a warning to other communities to conserve water before it's too late.

"I feel for the folks in Atlanta," he says, his gravelly voice barely rising above the sound of rushing water from the town's tank. "We can survive. We're 145 people. You've got 4.5 million people down there. What are they going to do? It's a scary thought."

http://www.charlotte.com/nation/story/344047.html

[ДЖИГИТ]

Global-warming gases set to rise by 57 percent by 2030

PARIS (AFP) - Emissions of greenhouse gases will rise by 57 percent by 2030 compared to current levels, which will increase the Earth's surface temperature by at least three degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit), the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday. In its annual report on global energy needs, the Paris-based agency projected greenhouse-gas pollution would rise by 1.8 percent annually by 2030 on the basis of projected energy use and current efforts to mitigate emissions.

The IEA saw little chance of reducing this pollution to a stable, safer level any time soon.

It also poured cold water on a scenario outlined earlier this year by the United Nations' main authority on global warming, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The IPCC said that in order to limit the average increase in global temperatures to 2.4 C (4.3 F) -- the most optimistic of any scenario -- the concentration of greenhouse gases would have to stabilise at 450 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere.

To achieve this goal, CO2 emissions would have to peak by 2015 at the latest, then fall by between 50 and 85 percent by 2050, the panel.
But the IEA's World Energy Outlook report saw no peak in emissions before 2020.

To achieve the 450ppm target would mean that CO2 from energy sources would have to peak by 2012, which in turn would require a massive drive in energy efficiency and a switch to non-fossil fuels, the report said.
"Emissions savings (would have to) come from improved efficiency in fossil-fuel use in industry, buildings and transport, switching to nuclear power and renewables, and the widespread deployment of CO2 capture and storage in power generation and industry," the IEA said.

Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071107/sc_afp/ieaenergyclimatewarming)

[ДЖИГИТ]

Rapid Increase in New Delhi Vehicle Numbers to Erase Air Quality Gains

Delhi is in danger of losing the gains of its CNG program as pollution levels are once again creeping up to pre-2000 level. The latest analysis of recent air quality data in Delhi carried out by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) finds that pollution levels are on the upswing again after a few years of control. Last winter, pollution levels in the city increased for the first time since the initiation of the CNG program, and this year pollution levels are already almost as high as what was in the city in pre-CNG days.

We will have to take tough measures to control growing air pollution and fast. Otherwise, Delhi will find itself in the choked and toxic haze of the pre-CNG days, when diesel-driven buses and autos had made it one of the most polluted cities on earth.

—Sunita Narain, director, CSE

In 2002, when Delhi initiated the CNG program, the annual average levels of respirable suspended particulate matter (RSPM, or PM10) in residential areas stood at 143 microgram per cubic meter. That dropped to 115 microgram per cubic meter by 2005. Since 2006, the annual average levels have jumped back to 136 microgram per cubic meter. The monthly average levels of RSPM in the winter of 2006-07 was as high as 350 microgram per cubic meter. The levels may even be higher this winter.

This year, the daily levels of even finer particulates smaller than 2.5-micron size (PM2.5), have already reached 240 microgram per cubic meter in Delhi in end-October. Studies in the US show that an increase of only 10 microgram per cubic meter of PM2.5 is associated with significant increases in health risks. High exposure to PM2.5 is known to lead to increased hospitalization for asthma, lung diseases, chronic bronchitis and heart damage. Long-term exposure can cause lung cancer.

Green Car Congress (http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/11/rapid-increase-.html#more)

[ДЖИГИТ]

Atlanta Water Shortage
Residents have been told they have only 3 months worth of drinking water left in supply chain.

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/2545/0017imagenullnull300198ns9.jpg


Video:http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/ver/247.1/popup/index.php?cl=4974736


Atlanta, Ga. -- It doesn't get much worse than this...Atlanta, suffering under one of the worst droughts it's ever seen.

Dr. David Stooksbury, Ga. State Climatologist, "We have actually classified it as an exceptional drought...basically, the type of drought that we expect to see about once in 100 years."

With rainfall totals over 16 inches below normal, the city's entire water supply is in danger...of drying up.

Sam Champion, asking question, "First of all... how bad is it...a little bad, medium bad, or a lot bad?"

Carol Couch, Director, Ga. Environmental Protection Division, "It's a lot bad...without any intervention, we are likely to run out of water in three months."

Most of the Atlanta area's water supply comes from just two lakes; Lake Lanier is the main source, but the 18-month drought is literally sucking it dry.

Just to show you how bad things are...this is Lake Allatooona...Atlanta's second source for water. This floating pole would normally mark nine feet for the swimmers. I can't even reach there, because we are on the lake bed...but this isn't even where the water line is...Come On.

[ДЖИГИТ]

UN chief visits vanishing world of Antarctica


http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/11/11/bankimoon_wideweb__470x332,0.jpg

Scientists welcomed Ban Ki Moon to Antarctica with a glass of Johnny Walker Black Label served “on the rocks” with 40,000-year-old polar ice. But the researchers delivered an alarming message to the UN Secretary-General about a potential environmental catastrophe that could raise sea levels by six metres if an ice sheet covering a fifth of the continent crumbles. The polar experts, studying the effects of global warming on the icy continent that is devoted to science, fear a repeat of the 2002 collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf. The 12,000-year-old shelf was 220 metres (720ft) thick and almost the size of Yorkshire.

Antarctica's ice sheets on average are almost 2.5 kilometres thick - five times the height of the world's tallest building. But scientists say they are already showing signs of climate change.

Satellite images show the West Antarctic ice sheet is thinning and may even collapse in the future, causing sea levels to rise.

Amid occasional flurries of snow, Mr Ban flew over melting ice fields where vast chunks the size of six-storey buildings could be seen floating off the coast after breaking away. "All we've seen has been very impressive and beautiful," he said. "But at the same time it's disturbing. We've seen … the melting of glaciers."

It was the first visit by a UN chief to Antarctica.

“I was told by scientists that the entire Western Antarctica is now floating. That is a fifth of the continent. If it broke up, sea levels may rise as much as six metres,” Mr Ban said after being briefed at the Chilean, Uruguayan and South Korean bases during a day trip to King George Island, at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

For Mr Ban, a media-shy former South Korean Foreign Minister, to travel to Antarctica was a dramatic gesture aimed at highlighting his personal concern over global warming. Accompanying the UN chief was his wife, Yoo Soon Taek. The meticulously dressed couple had to don padded polar trousers and anoraks in the hold of a Chilean military transport aircraft during the 2½hour flight from Punta Arenas, southern Chile.

Mr Ban skipped a three-course lunch that the Chilean Air Force had prepared so that he could land by ski-plane on the retreating Collins glacier. “What we have seen is very impressive and beautiful,” he said. “But at the same time it can be disturbing too.”

Eduardo Frei Montalva Air Force Base, a year-round settlement of corrugated-iron cabins belonging to Chile, lies in one of the world’s worst “hot spots” – temperatures have been rising 0.5C (0.9F) a decade since the 1940s. The base is still coated in thick snow and the bay still frozen because of an unusually harsh Antarctic winter. The temperature for the UN chief’s visit was a tolerable minus 4C (25F). The arrival of the austral summer would normally have turned the ground to mud by this time of year.

Yet scientists say that what matters for the polar ice is not how cold it gets in winter but how hot it gets in summer. And they are alarmed at the extremes of temperature.

The Times (London) (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2852908.ece)

[Maroon]

51 ways to save the environment


http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/environment/article/0,28804,1602354_1603074,00.html


Some interesting stuff.

I believe it is time for people to start respecting their surrounding. Unfortunately, not a lot of people want to understand it.

[ДЖИГИТ]

Carbon Dioxide Emissions From Power Plants Rated Worldwide

Now for the first time, the CO2 emissions of 50,000 power plants worldwide, the globe's most concentrated source of greenhouse gases, have been compiled into a massive new data base, called CARMA--Carbon Monitoring for Action.

The on-line database, compiled by the Center for Global Development (CGD), an independent policy and research organization that focuses on how the actions of the rich world shape the lives of poor people in developing countries, lays out exactly where the CO2 emitters are and how much of the greenhouse gas they are casting into the atmosphere. It also shows which companies own the plants.

Power generation accounts for about one-quarter of total emissions of CO2, the main culprit in global warming. But, until now, people concerned about climate change lacked information about the emissions of particular power plants and the identities of the companies that own them.

CARMA.org
(http://carma.org/)

[ДЖИГИТ]

Climate change report to warn of potentially 'irreversible' impacts

by Marlowe Hood Fri Nov 16, 2:12 PM ET

VALENCIA, Spain (AFP) - Less than three weeks before a crucial conference on climate change, UN experts agreed Friday on a draft report that warns global warming may have far-reaching and irreversible consequences.

The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is designed to guide policymakers for the next five years.

Delegates to the Nobel-winning scientific authority agreed the draft after night-long negotiations, chief French delegate Marc Gillet told AFP.
Human activities "could lead to abrupt or irreversible climate changes and impacts," the agreed text said.

The report will be officially adopted on Saturday, followed by a press conference attended by United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon.
It summarises three massive documents issued this year covering the evidence for climate change; the present and possible future impacts of it; and the options for tackling the peril.

After Saturday, attention shifts to a key meeting in Bali, Indonesia, where governments must set down a "roadmap" for negotiations culminating in a deal to slash carbon emissions and help developing nations cope with climate change.

The IPCC experts agreed that the rise in Earth's temperature observed in the past few decades was principally due to human causes, not natural ones, as "climate sceptics" often aver.

The impacts of climate change are already visible, in the form of retreating glaciers and snow loss in alpine regions, thinning Arctic summer sea ice and thawing permafrost, according to the three IPCC reports issued earlier this year.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071116/ts_afp/unclimatewarmingipcc_071116191200;_ylt=Au_Y6TA_maP 3e1g1sMCRXmJrAlMA

[ДЖИГИТ]

U.N. issues landmark report on global warming

Panel offers dire warnings, establishes scientific baseline for political talks

VALENCIA, Spain - Global warming (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21844627/#) is “unequivocal” and carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere commits the world to sea levels rising an average of up to 4.6 feet, the world’s top climate experts warned Saturday in their most authoritative report to date.

“Only urgent, global action will do,” said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21844627/#), calling on the United States and China — the world’s two biggest polluters — to do more to slow global climate change.

Islands, coastlines, species imperiled

According to the U.N. panel of scientists, whose latest report is a synthesis of three previous ones, enough carbon dioxide already has built up that it imperils islands, coastlines and a fifth to two-thirds of the world’s species.As early as 2020, 75 million to 250 million people in Africa will suffer water shortages, residents of Asia’s large cities will be at great risk of river and coastal flooding, according to the report.


Europeans can expect extensive species loss, and North Americans will experience longer and hotter heat waves and greater competition for water, says the report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the Nobel Prize with Al Gore (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21844627/#) this year.


The panel portrays the Earth hurtling toward a warmer climate at a quickening pace and warns of inevitable human suffering. It says emissions of carbon, mainly from fossil fuels, must stabilize by 2015 and go down after that...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21844627/