CLIMATE CHANGE: What We Know, the Reality Risks & Respo

[Oscar]

WHAT WE KNOW: THE REALITY, RISKS AND RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE

[ http://whatweknow.aaas.org/wp-content/u ... e-Know.pdf ]

New American Climate Change Report- [AAAS Climate Change Panel.] - 28 pages

The AAAS Climate Change Panel Advancing Science Serving Society

List of 13 American Scientists involved
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For more information about the panel and the initiative, please visit:
[ www.whatweknow.aaas.org ]

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INTRODUCTION

The overwhelming evidence of human-caused climate change documents both current impacts with significant costs and extraordinary future risks to society and natural systems. The scientific community has convened conferences, published reports, spoken out at forums and proclaimed, through statements by virtually every national scientific academy and relevant major scientific organization-including the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)-that climate change puts the well-being of people of all nations at risk. Surveys show that many Americans think climate change is still a topic of significant scientific disagreement.

Thus, it is important and increasingly urgent for the public to know there is now a high degree of agreement among climate scientists that human - caused climate change is real. Moreover, while the public is becoming aware that climate change is increasing the likelihood of certain local disasters, many people do not yet understand that there is a small, but real chance of abrupt, unpredictable and potentially irreversible changes with highly damaging impacts on people in the United States and around the world.

It is not the purpose of this paper to explain why this disconnect between scientific knowledge and public perception has occurred. Nor are we seeking to provide yet another extensive review of the scientific evidence for climate change.

Instead, we present key messages for every American about climate change:

1. Climate scientists agree: climate change is happening here and now. Based on well-established evidence, about 97% of climate scientists have concluded that human-caused climate change is happening. This agreement is documented not just by a single study, but by a converging stream of evidence over the past two decades from surveys of scientists, content analyses of peer-reviewed studies, and public statements issued by virtually every membership organization of experts in this field. Average global temperature has increased by about 1.4 F over the last 100 years. Sea level is rising, and some types of extreme events - such as heat waves and heavy precipitation events are happening more frequently. Recent scientific findings indicate that climate change is likely responsible for the increase in the intensity of many of these events in recent years.

2. We are at risk of pushing our climate system toward abrupt, unpredictable, and potentially irreversible changes with highly damaging impacts. Earth's climate is on a path to warm beyond the range of what has been experienced over the past millions of years. ii The range of uncertainty for the warming along the current emissions path is wide enough to encompass massively disruptive consequences to societies and ecosystems: as global temperatures rise, there is a real risk, however small, that one or more critical parts of the Earth's climate system will experience abrupt, unpredictable and potentially irreversible changes. Disturbingly, scientists do not know how much warming is required to trigger such changes to the climate system.

3. The sooner we act, the lower the risk and cost. And there is much we can do. Waiting to take action will inevitably increase costs, escalate risk, and foreclose options to address the risk. The CO2 we produce accumulates in Earth's atmosphere for decades, centuries, and longer. It is not like pollution from smog or wastes in our lakes and rivers, where levels respond quickly to the effects of targeted policies. The effects of CO2 emissions cannot be reversed from one generation to the next until there is a large-scale, cost-effective way to scrub carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Moreover, as emissions continue and warming increases, the risk increases.

By making informed choices now, we can reduce risks for future generations and ourselves, and help communities adapt to climate change. People have responded successfully to other major environmental challenges such as acid rain and the ozone hole with benefits greater than costs, and scientists working with economists believe there are ways to manage the risks of climate change while balancing current and future economic prosperity.

As scientists, it is not our role to tell people what they should do or must believe about the rising threat of climate change. But we consider it to be our responsibility as professionals to ensure, to the best of our ability, that people understand what we know: human-caused climate change is happening, we face risks of abrupt, unpredictable and potentially irreversible changes, and responding now will lower the risk and cost of taking action.

I CLIMATE REALITY

A. Climate scientists agree: Humans driving climate change.
Many Americans believe scientists disagree. Based on well-established evidence,about 97% of climate scientists have concluded that humans are changing the climate....

B Climate Change is happening now and its going to get worse. Climate Change is already happening. More heat waves, greater sea level rise, and other changes with consequences for human health, natural ecosystems, and agriculture are already occurring in the United States and worldwide. These problems are very likely to become worse over the next 10 - 20 years and beyond....

Subjects addressed include:
* The Core of global warming
* Sea Ice
* Ice Sheets and Glaciers
* Ocean Acidifciation
* Ecological Impacts
* Sea Level Rise
* Floods, Heat waves and drought
* Wildfires
* Effects on health and Well-being
* Climate Change and National Security


II CLIMATE RISKS

Given the high stakes, it is valuable to understand not just what is most likely to happen, but what might possibly happen to our climate. There is a possibility that temperatures will rise much higher and impacts will be much worse than expected.

Moreover, as global temperature rises, the risk increases that one or more important parts of the Earth's climate system will experience changes that may be abrupt, unpredictable, and potentially irreversible, causing large damages and high costs.

A High risk scenarios: the high side projection

* Global Temperature
* Floods, Heat waves and drought
* Sea Level

B. Abrupt Climate Change

* Some Potential climate change scenarios include
* Ecosystem collapse
* Arctic Ice Collapses
* Large scale Ice Sheet Collapse
* Destabilizing of Sea Floor Methane
* Permafrost melt

III CLIMATE CHANGE RESPONSE

A. The sooner we act, the lower the risk and cost. The longer we wait to respond, the more the risks of climate change will increase. Conversely, the sooner we take action, the more options we will have to reduce risk and limit the human and economic cost of climate change....

B. There is much we can doWe've successfully faced environmental challenges before. There's much we can do to respond to the challenge and risks of climate change, particularly by tapping America's strength in innovation....

In summary, responding effectively to the challenge of climate change requires a full understanding that there is now a high degree of agreement among climate scientists about the fact that climate change is happening now, because of human activities, and that the risks-including the possibility for abrupt and disruptive changes-will increase the longer greenhouse gas emissions continue.

REFERENCES

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[ http://whatweknow.aaas.org/wp-content/u ... e-Know.pdf ]