Records show latest decade was the warmest ever as climate change impacts become increasingly evident
Fri 23 November 2012
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Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hit a new record high in 2011 according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) with carbon dioxide levels reaching 391 parts per million in 2011. Meanwhile, 2012 is likely to be the ninth warmest year in terms of average global temperatures ever recorded and the period 2000-10 is now confirmed as the warmest decade with average world temperatures 1.3 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average.
A new report from the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) says that climate change is likely to be more severe than some models have implied. NCAR's study - published in the leading peer-reviewed journal Science found that climate model projections showing a greater rise in global temperature were likely to be more accurate than those showing a smaller rise. This means not only a higher level of warming, but also that the resulting problems – including floods, droughts, sea level rise and fiercer storms and other extreme weather – would be correspondingly more severe and would come sooner than expected.
John Fasullo (reported in The Guardian), one of the researchers, said: "There is a striking relationship between how well climate models simulate relative humidity in key areas and how much warming they show in response to increasing carbon dioxide. Given how fundamental these processes are to clouds and the overall global climate, our findings indicate that warming is likely to be on the high side of current projections."
Extreme weather has been much in evidence around the World this year, with Hurricane Sandy's devastating impact on New York the most recent example. There has also been drought across much of the US's grain-growing area, and problems with the Indian monsoon. In the UK, one of the worst droughts on record gave way to the wettest spring recorded, damaging crop yields and pushing up food prices.
Recently published research by the European Environment Agency (EEA) found that European temperatures in the last decade were 1.3 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average – the warmest since records began. Their report finds that since 2002, rainfall has decreased in southern Europe, while increasing in the north, and there have been more extreme weather events.
Meanwhile, the Greenland ice sheet, Arctic sea ice and many European glaciers are melting.
“Climate change is a reality around the world, and the extent and speed of change is becoming ever more evident,” said Jacqueline McGlade, the EEA’s executive director (reported in The Guardian).
“This means that every part of the economy, including households, needs to adapt [to] as well as reduce emissions.”
The EEA's report, ‘Climate change, impacts and vulnerability in Europe 2012’, says that accelerating climate change impacts will vary across the continent, with the Mediterranean hit by heatwaves, while northern Europe suffers coastal and river floods.
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