Climate News

By Juliet Eilperin from the Washington Post
Friday, September 25, 2009

Climate researchers now predict the planet will warm by 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century even if the world's leaders fulfill their most ambitious climate pledges, a much faster and broader scale of change than forecast just two years ago, according to a report released Thursday by the United Nations Environment Program.

The new overview of global warming research, aimed at marshaling political support for a new international climate pact by the end of the year, highlights the extent to which recent scientific assessments have outstripped the predictions issued by the Nobel Prize-winning U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007.

With the world's oceans absorbing six million tonnes of carbon a day, a leading oceanographer warns of eco disaster

The Bureau of Meteorology has released a report revealing that August 2009 was the hottest on record. The paragraphs below are quotes from the report (emphasis added):

Based on Australia’s statements at UN climate talks in Bonn it appears that Australia has not recognized the critical need to implement climate policies that include the protection of Australia’s and the Worlds forests, and reduce carbon emissions from logging and landclearing.

Australia made a statement at the climate change talks on REDD at the first formal meeting to discuss among other things a possible REDD mechanism.

REDD is a mechanism that should be designed to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009
MIT News

New analysis shows warming could be double previous estimates.

By Stephen Leahy

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Apr 30 (IPS) - Climate scientists are calling for a phase-out of fossil fuels because humans are now pumping so much carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere that the '2-degree-C climate balloon' will burst otherwise, new studies show.

By David Rising, Associated Press.
Wednesday, 29 April 2009

New satellite images from the European Space Agency show massive amounts of ice are breaking away from a shelf on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula, researchers said today.

29th April 2009, 5:54 WST

Al Gore said on Tuesday the world must act quickly to slow the melting of the world's polar ice packs and glaciers before it reaches a critical rate for global warming.

"We have to act and we have to act quickly because we don't want to cross this tipping point," the Nobel peace laureate and former US vice president told a meeting of foreign ministers, experts and scientists from the most affected countries.

March 12, 2009

“Rapid, sustained, and effective mitigation based on coordinated global and regional action is required to avoid dangerous climate change…. Inaction is inexcusable.”

From the Final Press Release issued by the International Scientific Congress on Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges & Decisions held in Copenhagen this week.

Key Message 1: Climatic Trends

By Jonathan Leake and Tricia Holly Davis
10 March 2009

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.