Humans have played significant role in climate change
Updated: Sep 27, 2013 06:27:02pm
New Delhi, Sept 28 (KNN) At least half the climate change that occurred during the last five decades is attributed to human activity such as driving cars, operating power plants on coal and oil and burning forestland, according to a CNN report.
The report is based on an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report with contributions from hundreds of scientists across the world. Such a report is released every five or six years. In this case, the scientists are 95 per cent sure that humans have been predominantly responsible for climate change.
While IPCC’s summary report was released today, the full version of report which comprises 2500 pages will be released on Monday. Significantly, the first section of the report is aimed at assisting policy makers, the CNN report said.
The earlier report published in 2007 also saw nearly a thousand researchers work on it and it was reviewed by many scientists. In that report, according to CNN, scientists were only 90 per cent sure of their findings, now they are 95 per cent sure about human activity playing a significant role in emitting greenhouse gases.
Projections for climate change until the end of the century are seen in the report. Climate researchers in 2007 were sure that temperature which had globally risen by half a centigrade was behind the extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts and flooding.
The new report states that the effects of that increase in temperature are expected to increase for a century or more. “Weather catastrophes, previously called storms of the century, are on their way to striking every 20 years or even more frequently,” it said.
It would mean that there would be more tornadoes, stronger and more floods, another Sandy or Katrina, more droughts that wipe out crops and more forest fires that destroy forest land.
Further, just as the Arctic ice cap nearly melted completely this summer, the same would happen with regularity each summer, causing sea levels to rise. On the other hand, in the Antarctic, the ice cap could continue to increase slightly. In addition, if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, the resulting temperature rise and its deadly effects would get even worse. (KNN/ES)
The report is based on an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report with contributions from hundreds of scientists across the world. Such a report is released every five or six years. In this case, the scientists are 95 per cent sure that humans have been predominantly responsible for climate change.
While IPCC’s summary report was released today, the full version of report which comprises 2500 pages will be released on Monday. Significantly, the first section of the report is aimed at assisting policy makers, the CNN report said.
The earlier report published in 2007 also saw nearly a thousand researchers work on it and it was reviewed by many scientists. In that report, according to CNN, scientists were only 90 per cent sure of their findings, now they are 95 per cent sure about human activity playing a significant role in emitting greenhouse gases.
Projections for climate change until the end of the century are seen in the report. Climate researchers in 2007 were sure that temperature which had globally risen by half a centigrade was behind the extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts and flooding.
The new report states that the effects of that increase in temperature are expected to increase for a century or more. “Weather catastrophes, previously called storms of the century, are on their way to striking every 20 years or even more frequently,” it said.
It would mean that there would be more tornadoes, stronger and more floods, another Sandy or Katrina, more droughts that wipe out crops and more forest fires that destroy forest land.
Further, just as the Arctic ice cap nearly melted completely this summer, the same would happen with regularity each summer, causing sea levels to rise. On the other hand, in the Antarctic, the ice cap could continue to increase slightly. In addition, if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, the resulting temperature rise and its deadly effects would get even worse. (KNN/ES)
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