Climate Change Only One Symptom Of A Stressed Planet Earth
Pastor Dale Morgan
Climate Change Only One Symptom Of A Stressed Planet Earth*
The IGBP reports that "the Earth is now in the midst of its sixth great
extinction event."
by Staff Writers
Stockholm, Sweden (SPX) Feb 06, 2007
In releasing its latest comprehensive report, the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) focuses an important spotlight on the
current state of the Earth's climate. Climate change is just one of the
many symptoms exhibited by a planet under pressure from human
activities. "Global environmental change, which includes climate change,
threatens to irreversibly alter our planet," says Kevin Noone, Executive
Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP).
Global studies by IGBP show that human-driven environmental changes are
affecting many parts of the Earth's system, in addition to its climate.
For example:
- Half of Earth's land surface is now domesticated for direct human use.
- 75 percent of the world's fisheries are fully or over-exploited.
- The composition of today´s atmosphere is well outside the range of
natural variability the Earth has maintained over the last 650,000 years.
- The Earth is now in the midst of its sixth great extinction event.
"The IPCC report, with its interdisciplinary approach to climate change,
is a clear example of how the Earth needs to be considered as a coupled
system in order to understand global environmental change," says Noone.
"The study of the Earth as a system, looking not only at climate but
also at changes in the oceans and on land, how those changes affect each
other, and the role of humans as part of that system is a crucial
approach to managing a sustainable planet," he says.
An integrated Earth System Science approach can provide critical
insights into the feasibility, risks, trade-offs and timeliness of any
proposed strategy to respond to global environmental change, explains
Noone. He notes that the current IPCC report reflects the importance of
Earth System Science in its analysis of climate change.
Earth System Science emphasises observing, understanding and predicting
global environmental changes involving interactions between land,
atmosphere, water, ice, biosphere, societies, technologies and
economies, at broader temporal and spatial scales. IGBP research
encompasses all of these Earth System components and then synthesizes
international, multidisciplinary observations to enhance scientific
understanding.
"An Earth system perspective is crucial to understanding global
environmental change since global biogeochemical cycles and the physical
climate are strongly coupled. Predicting the evolution of this
interactive system under global perturbations by human activities is key
for the sustainability of Planet Earth" said IGBP Chair Carlos Nobre of
the Centro de Previsão de Tempo e Estudos Climáticos and the Instituto
Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais in Brazil.