In keeping with the previous post, I feel I need to post this important summary from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We need to remember and re-invent and inspire all the good things that are being done, all the people who are developing grass roots programs, alternative energy, activism for the Earth, and new paradigms of spirituality that encompasses nature, justice for all beings upon the Earth, and justice for our children, who must live into a changed and troubled future. But there cannot be room any longer for denial.............
'Unequivocal' says IPCC
Global scientific consensus says the planet
is changing in ways unseen in thousands of years and if something
'substantial' not done, and soon, the results will be unthinkable."
- Jon Queally, staff writer
If
the public and policymakers want a single adjective to describe the
findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's new
assessment report that's the word.
Released Friday, the IPCC report states, that "warming in the climate
system is unequivocal and since 1950 many changes have been observed
throughout the climate system that are unprecedented over decades to
millennia."
"Our assessment of the science finds that the atmosphere and ocean
have warmed, the amount of snow and ice has diminished, the global mean
sea level has risen and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have
increased,” said Qin Dahe, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group I, responsible
for this first stage of the IPCC's report on climate. Read the full report
here. Headline statements from the IPCC
here (pdf). The report reaffirms that the human influence on the planet's
dramatic warming is clear and beyond reproach. According to a press
statement accompanying the release of the report:
It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant
cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century. The evidence
for this has grown, thanks to more and better observations, an improved
understanding of the climate system response and improved climate
models.
Thomas Stocker, Co-Chair of the working group behind the report
indicated that in order to prevent the worst case scenarios presented in
the report for the century ahead, governments will need to take
aggressive action. "Continued emissions of greenhouse gases will cause
further warming and changes in all components of the climate system,"
Stocker said. "Limiting climate change will require
substantial and sustained reductions of greenhouse gas emissions."
The IPCC document—officially labeled as IPCC Working Group I assessment report (AR5) and titled
Climate Change 2013: the Physical Science Basis—was
approved by the world scientific body on Friday in Stockholm and is the
panel's official statement—made after hundreds of the world's top
scientists reviewed thousands of studies—on climate change, ocean and
atmospheric temperatures, and global warming.
“As the ocean warms, and glaciers and ice sheets reduce, global mean
sea level will continue to rise, but at a faster rate than we have
experienced over the past 40 years,” said Dahe. And its other key findings are startling. They include:
- Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s,
many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to
millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and
ice have diminished, sea level has risen, and the concentrations of
greenhouse gases have increased.
- Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the
Earth’s surface than any preceding decade since 1850. In the Northern
Hemisphere, 1983–2012 was likely the warmest 30-year period of the last
1400 years (medium confidence).
- Ocean warming dominates the increase in energy stored in the climate
system, accounting for more than 90% of the energy accumulated between
1971 and 2010 (high confidence). It is virtually certain that the upper
ocean (0−700 m) warmed from 1971 to 2010, and it likely warmed between
the 1870s and 1971.
- Over the last two decades, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets
have been losing mass, glaciers have continued to shrink almost
worldwide, and Arctic sea ice and Northern Hemisphere spring snow cover
have continued to decrease in extent (high confidence).
- The rate of sea level rise since the mid-19th century has been
larger than the mean rate during the previous two millennia (high
confidence). Over the period 1901–2010, global mean sea level rose by
0.19 [0.17 to 0.21] m.
- The atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and
nitrous oxide have increased to levels unprecedented in at least the
last 800,000 years. CO2 concentrations have increased by 40% since
pre-industrial times, primarily from fossil fuel emissions and
secondarily from net land use change emissions. The ocean has absorbed
about 30% of the emitted anthropogenic carbon dioxide, causing ocean
acidification.
- Total radiative forcing is positive, and has led to an uptake of
energy by the climate system. The largest contribution to total
radiative forcing is caused by the increase in the atmospheric
concentration of CO2 since 1750.
- 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.
“The world’s scientists have spoken," said Sarah-Jayne Clifton,
climate justice and energy coordinator for Friends of the Earth
International, in reaction to the report. Clifton said the report once
again reaffirms "now with absolute certainty" that climate change is
caused by humans and "that it poses a severe and immediate threat to our
future and that of the planet."
"Communities around the world are already being devastated by extreme
weather. It is untenable for our political leaders to continue their
inaction," she said. "The interests of humanity must be prioritized
above the profits of dirty energy corporations through an urgent and
dramatic transformation of the world’s corporate-controlled,
unsustainable energy system."
During the winter and spring I support myself, and am able to keep my house, mostly by renting rooms to women visiting Tucson, and occasionally the renovated Airstream trailer in the back to both men and women. If I'm feeling especially lively, everyone gets breakfast, but not always. I never expected I'd be making a living changing sheets and making toast, but it's been a blessing, a lot of fun, and I've met some great people, including people from Paris, Tasmania, and Helsinki. 
