The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #125287   Message #2773416
Posted By: Amos
25-Nov-09 - 11:11 AM
Thread Name: BS: Climate change: Not??
Subject: RE: BS: Climate change: Not??
"It may sound like a thriller, but The Copenhagen Diagnosis is not an enjoyable read. It's a stark update on the state of our environment in time for next month's summit on climate change in the Danish capital.

In the report, an international team of climate scientists warns policy-makers that levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are at the extreme end of predictions made only in 2007, and that natural CO2 sinks such as oceans are becoming saturated.

Also, sea level rise is almost 80 per cent higher than some predictions, says co-author Tim Lenton at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK.

The team stresses that even a little warming could cause irreversible melting of ice sheets and turn dense Amazon forests into dry savannah grassland. "We may be heading towards these climate 'tipping points' earlier than we thought," Lenton says. The report calls for drastic action, including cutting CO2 emissions to almost zero by 2100 to prevent catastrophic climate change."