Climatologists - Climate Disruption Moving Faster Than Feared - Reuters

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON - Recent storms, droughts and heat waves are probably being caused by global warming, which means the effects of climate change are coming faster than anyone had feared, climate experts said.

The four hurricanes that bashed Florida and the Caribbean within a five-week period over the summer, intense storms over the western Pacific, heat waves that killed tens of thousands of Europeans last year and a continued drought across the U.S. southwest are only the beginning, the experts said. Ice is melting faster than anyone predicted in the Antarctic and Greenland, ocean currents are changing and the seas are warming, the experts said.

EDIT

James McCarthy, a professor of biological oceanography at Harvard University and former co-chair of the impacts group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change agreed said it is impossible to say any one storm or drought is caused by climate change. But, he added, "We know that the Earth's temperature pattern is changing ... On every continent it is now evident that there are impacts from these changes in temperature and precipitation."

Not even the most anxious scientists had predicted that some of the changes that have occurred would come so soon, he said. For example, several high-profile reports have described the unexpected rapid loss of ice in the Antarctic and Greenland. "They are really important components of the interactive climate system," McCarthy said. "They really should serve as a wake-up call."

EDIT

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/27825/story.htm

[soothsayer]

1. You keep studying it, we'll be over here chopping down the trees.

Let us know when it gets REALLY bad.

We are such an ignorant species sometimes.

[havocmom]

2. People won't modify their behavior unless they are uncomfortable.

Sadly, they are too well insulated from the real world to feel enough discomfort to get it in gear and demand changes. Things are fine at the malls.

Just not enough people dealing with reality or even talking regular walks outside and noticing little things.

For the past 3 winters, where I live in Montana, there have been birds that should be migrating south, staying here all year. The birds that do head south are doing it later all the time. There is damned little water flowing into Fort Peck Lake (part of the Missouri River) because the mountain rivers which feed it here are drying up due to lack of snow pack.

But there are plans for a new coal burning plant and I watch a steady parade of 'outdoors enthusiasts' fueling up behemoth motor homes pulling gas burning boats, ATVs, jet skis and snow mobiles.

Glad I am not gonna be around much longer. Worried about the world my young friends are inheriting.

[IrateCitizen]

3. I just started reading "Boiling Point" by Ross Gelbspan...

... and so far, it backs all these assertions up. The more I read about global warming, the more fearful for our future I become, given the complete lack of political will to do ANYTHING about it now.

Some examples of the reality of this situation:
- The entire North Sea ecosystem was found to be in a state of collapse due to rising sea temperatures
- In 1997 a NOAA study found that nighttime and winter low temperatures were rising nearly 2x the rate of daytime and summer highs. Team lead David Easterling noted that if the warming were natural and not driven by fossil fuel emissions, these temperatures would rise in parallel. Therefore, they can only be driven significantly by human causes.
- A NASA study in late 2002 found that the ice cover on the Arctic Ocean is vanishing at a rate of 9% per decade -- 3x faster than previously predicted.
- The pH levels of the oceans are steadily increasing due to carbon fallout -- they are becoming more and more acidic.
- The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf in the Arctic collapsed in September 2003. It was the largest collapse on record -- a shelf 80' thick and 150 sq. mi. At the time of its collapse, however, it was found to be half as thick as measured in 1980.

[Mabus]

4. all of this is interesting but...

there are so many exciting commericals about SUVs. Did you know you can take the whole family out to rape the environment while enjoying a DVD?

What a country! Full of idiots, but what a country.

[Dogmudgeon]

5. We're f*cked

Ten or fifteen warm and hot and cloudy years ahead of us, then the ice age falls with the saturated atmosphere. And pray it happens sooner than later. The longer the warming period, the worse the pay-back will be.

The die-off is happening now.

Once the availability of cheap oil is gone, the human die-off will commence.

--bkl

[brokensymmetry]

6. I think you're right.

And I think the die-off is going to be messy. I wonder if it will play out as Easter Island did...

[ramapo]

7. Was having kids a bad idea?

Sometimes I wonder...

[phantom power]

8. I think having children is good.

Although we need to reduce our population, I don't think that implies people should stop having children. We just need to stop having >2 children.

There's never been a safe time to have children. Arguably, the last 50 years or so are about the safest it's ever been, from a mortality standpoint. And yet, for that entire 50 years, we've also lived with the constant threat of nuclear war, pollution, climate change, and probably some other things I'm forgetting.