Global Warming: Turns out Scientists have under-stated (not over-stated) warming risks: New Studies
EconomicDemocracy Coop
(AFP) – 4 days ago
PARIS — Global temperatures could rise substantially more because of
increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than previously thought,
according to a new study by US and Chinese scientists released Sunday.
The researchers used a long-term model for assessing climate change,
confirming a similar British study released this month that said
calculations for man-made global warming may be underestimated by
between 30 and 50 percent.
The new study published online by Nature Geoscience focused on a
period three to five million years ago -- the most recent episode of
sustained global warming with geography similar to today's, a Yale
University statement said.
This was in order to look at the Earth's long-term sensitivity to
climate fluctuation, including in changes to continental icesheets and
vegetation cover on land.
More common estimates for climate change are based on relatively rapid
feedback to increases in carbon dioxide, such as changes to sea ice
and atmospheric water vapour.
Using sediment drilled from the ocean floor, the scientists'
reconstruction of carbon dioxide concentrations found that "a
relatively small rise in CO2 levels was associated with substantial
global warming 4.5 million years ago."
They also found that the global temperature was between two and three
degrees Celsius (3.6 and 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than today
even though carbon dioxide levels were similar to the current ones,
the statement said.
"This work and other ancient climate reconstructions reveal that
Earth's climate is more sensitive to atmospheric carbon dioxide than
is discussed in political circles," said the paper's lead author,
Yale's Mark Pagani.
"Since there is no indication that the future will behave differently
than the past, we should expect a couple of degrees of continued
warming even if we held CO2 concentrations at the current level," he
said in the statement.
The study was published on the heels of a 12-day UN conference in
Copenhagen that was aimed at providing a durable solution to the
greenhouse-gas problem and its disastrous consequences but was
labelled a failure by critics.
The meeting set a commitment to limit global warming to two degrees
Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), but did not spell out the important stepping
stones -- global emissions targets for 2020 or 2050 -- for getting
there.
The British study released on December 6 had also researched the
Pliocene era, between three to five million years ago.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jye_vRRbnHiD_kLyWGPBOfoa_cvg
Red Cloud
wrote:
Pollution and global warming is good for Americans. Self-fulfilling
prophecy and
doom & gloom they wait for... Global warming theory kills American
concept of the freedom. Freedom to drive and freedom to pollute.
When the time come, they will rejoice that their prophecy is true.
Get lost
wrote:
> Global warming hike may be steeper: research
Er, still waiting for the onslaught of major new hurricanes on the
Atlantic coast of North American. What happened to that prediction,
btw?
Padraigh ProAmerica
Ain't gonna happen.
AGW is the first major scientific theory that isn't falsifiable- no
matter what evidence there is, it ALL points to global warming.
That isn't science- that's a fundamentalist religion.
"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and let them
surprise you with their ingenuity."
Gen. George S. Patton