Copenhagen Conf. Steering Cmte. Chair - "What We Know Now Is That We Are Facing The Worst-Case"

[hatrack]

Surging global greenhouse gas emissions mean the world now faces likely temperature rises of up to 5-6C this century, according to the scientist leading the international Climate Congress in Copenhagen this week. Professor Katharine Richardson, who chaired the scientific steering committee for the conference, said it was now almost impossible for the world to achieve the UN target of preventing global temperature rise exceeding 2C. "We can forget about the 2C"," said Richardson in an interview. "We are now facing the situation where we have to avoid a 5-6C rise in temperature."

Richardson said her comments were based on sifting through hundreds of science research papers submitted to the congress. Details of the research are being presented to delegates this week and will be used in a report for the UN.

Her comments were not the only bad news to emerge on the first day of the International Scientific Congress on Climate Change (IPCC) in Copenhagen. Other researchers warned that sea levels are now rising 50% faster than suggested by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its 2007 report. It means the world’s oceans could rise by a metre or more over the next century and that low-lying coastal areas will be at risk of inundation with hundreds of millions of people displaced, especially in developing countries.

Some of those attending the Copenhagen meeting have dubbed it “the end of the world conference” because the latest research emerging on climate change is so alarming. "There is not a lot, if any, good news," said Richardson of the emerging science. “What we know now is that we are we facing the worst case scenario."

EDIT

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5882341.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178

[villager]

1. Do we get our Chuck Heston "Damn you!" end of the world scream now?

sigh....

[phantom power]

2. OK then.

:puke:

[pscot]

3. Six degrees?

I thought two was a tad optimistic, but at six degrees we are gonna be feeling mighty froggy.

[Nihil]

5. That would be a catchy title for a book to explain the likely impact wouldn't it?

Oh, wait ...

[struggle4progress]

4. Sea levels rising twice as fast as predicted

Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica force UN scientists to issue dramatic warning
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
Wednesday, 11 March 2009

Sea levels are predicted to rise twice as fast as was forecast by the United Nations only two years ago, threatening hundreds of millions of people with catastrophe, scientists said yesterday in a dramatic new warning about climate change. Rapidly melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are likely to push up sea levels by a metre or more by 2100, swamping coastal cities and obliterating the living space of 600 million people who live in deltas, low-lying areas and small island states.

Low-lying countries with increasing populations, such as Bangladesh, Burma and Egypt, could see large parts of their surface areas vanish. Experts in Bangladesh estimate that a one-metre rise in sea levels would swamp 17 per cent of the country's land mass. Pacific islands such as Tuvalu, where 12,000 people live just a few feet above sea level, and the Maldives, would face complete obliteration.

Even Britain could face real challenges in lower-lying areas along the east coast, from Lincolnshire to the Thames estuary, with a much greater risk of catastrophic "storm surges" such as the great flood of 1953 that killed 307 people ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/sea-levels-rising-twice-as-fast-as-predicted-1642087.html