probablyasocialecologist:Scientists in Stockholm are due to present the most exhaustive and authorit
probablyasocialecologist:Scientists in Stockholm are due to present the most exhaustive and authoritative state of climate science to date. Follow our live news and reaction as the UN’s climate science panel publishes the first part of its fifth assessment report Image: Julien Behal/PAClimate change report: live reaction to IPCC conclusions | On Friday, scientists in Stockholm are due to present the most exhaustive and authoritative state of climate science to date | GuardianWhat we’ve learned this morningScientists are more certain than ever that humanity is to blame for rising temperatures. The head of the UN WMO said“it is extremely likely that changes in our climate system in the past half century are due to human influence.” The report says: “Human influence on the climate system is clear. This is evident from the increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, positive radiative forcing, observed warming, and understanding of the climate system.”We’re likely to go over rises of 2°C by 2100, the threshold of warming that governments have pledged to hold temperatures to and beyond which dangerous consequences including drought, floods and storms are expected. “What is very clear is we are not” on the path to keeping temperatures below 2C, said Thomas Stocker, one of the co-chairs of today’s report. Global temperatures are likely to rise by 0.3C to 4.8C by the end of the century, the report said.Sea level rises are coming. “Global mean sea level will continue to rise during the 21st century,” says today’s report, by a further 26-82cm by 2100, but Stocker said ”there is no consensus in the scientific community over very high sea level rises.”Scientists said that claims that the rate of temperature rises in the last 15 years has slowed did not affect the big picture and temperatures are going up in the longterm. Climate trends “should not be calculated for periods of less than 30 years,”said Stocker.The amount of carbon the world can burn without heading for dangerous levels of warming is far less than the amount of fossil fuels left in the ground. “The IPCC carbon budget to stay below 2C is 800-880 gigaton carbon. 531 GTC had already emitted by 2011. So we have 350GTC left, which is much less than the carbon stored in fossil fuel reserves.”Keep up to date Further reading:IPCC | Headline Statements from the Summary for PolicymakersBBC | Are ideas to cool the planet realistic?Guardian | Global warming likely to breach 2C threshold, climate scientists concludeGuardian | Climate change will hit poor countries hardest, study showsPlanetary ‘Runaway Greenhouse’ Climates More Easily Triggered than Previously ThoughtA Radical Approach to the Climate CrisisClimate research nearly unanimous on human causes -- source link