Talk about Rome burning while Nero fiddles!
The debates and endless discussions go on whilst scientists warn that unless we all get off our collective butts it will be too late to give this planet of ours at least a fair chance of surviving - and certainly an inability to curb what is increasing the strange weather the world is experiencing. Is there anywhere that climate change hasn't been experienced?
The Independent reports in "Climate chaos predicted by CO2 study" on what ought to be regarded as a pretty dire warning:
"The world will overshoot its long-term target on greenhouse gas emissions within two decades. A study has found that the average global temperature will rise above the threshold that could cause dangerous climate change during that time.
Scientists have calculated that the world has already produced about a third of the total amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that could be emitted between 2000 and 2050 and still keep within a C rise in global average temperatures.
At the current rate at which CO2 is emitted globally – which is increasing by 3 per cent a year – countries will have exceeded their total limit of 1,000 billion tons within 20 years, which would be about 20 years earlier than planned under international obligations. "If we continue burning fossil fuels as we do, we will have exhausted the carbon budget in merely 20 years, and global warming will go well beyond C," said Malte Meinshausen of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, who led the study, published in Nature.
"Substantial reductions in global emissions have to begin soon – before 2020. If we wait longer, the required phase-out of carbon emissions will involve tremendous economic costs and technological challenges. We should not forget that a C global mean warming would take us far beyond the variations that Earth has experienced since we humans have been around."
The debates and endless discussions go on whilst scientists warn that unless we all get off our collective butts it will be too late to give this planet of ours at least a fair chance of surviving - and certainly an inability to curb what is increasing the strange weather the world is experiencing. Is there anywhere that climate change hasn't been experienced?
The Independent reports in "Climate chaos predicted by CO2 study" on what ought to be regarded as a pretty dire warning:
"The world will overshoot its long-term target on greenhouse gas emissions within two decades. A study has found that the average global temperature will rise above the threshold that could cause dangerous climate change during that time.
Scientists have calculated that the world has already produced about a third of the total amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that could be emitted between 2000 and 2050 and still keep within a C rise in global average temperatures.
At the current rate at which CO2 is emitted globally – which is increasing by 3 per cent a year – countries will have exceeded their total limit of 1,000 billion tons within 20 years, which would be about 20 years earlier than planned under international obligations. "If we continue burning fossil fuels as we do, we will have exhausted the carbon budget in merely 20 years, and global warming will go well beyond C," said Malte Meinshausen of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, who led the study, published in Nature.
"Substantial reductions in global emissions have to begin soon – before 2020. If we wait longer, the required phase-out of carbon emissions will involve tremendous economic costs and technological challenges. We should not forget that a C global mean warming would take us far beyond the variations that Earth has experienced since we humans have been around."
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