Posted on 09/27/2006 10:59:20 AM PDT by blam
'One degree and we're done for'
27 September 2006
From New Scientist Print Edition.
Fred Pearce
Further global warming of 1 °C defines a critical threshold. Beyond that we will likely see changes that make Earth a different planet than the one we know."
So says Jim Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. Hansen and colleagues have analysed global temperature records and found that surface temperatures have been increasing by an average of 0.2 °C every decade for the past 30 years. Warming is greatest in the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere, particularly in the sub-Arctic boreal forests of Siberia and North America. Here the melting of ice and snow is exposing darker surfaces that absorb more sunlight and increase warming, creating a positive feedback.
Earth is already as warm as at any time in the last 10,000 years, and is within 1 °C of being its hottest for a million years, says Hansen's team. Another decade of business-as-usual carbon emissions will probably make it too late to prevent the ecosystems of the north from triggering runaway climate change, the study concludes (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 103, p 14288).
The analysis reinforces a series of recent findings on accelerating environmental disruption in Siberia, northern Canada and Alaska, underlining a growing scientific consensus that these regions are pivotal to climate change. Earlier this month, NASA scientists reported that climate change was speeding up the melting of Arctic sea ice. Permanent sea ice has contracted by 14 per cent in the past two years (Geophysical Research Letters, vol 33, L17501). However, warming and melting have been just as dramatic on land in the far north.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
That's about the temperature difference between New York and Philadelphia isn't it?
Glad to hear that, I am out of Kool Aide.
Global Warming hysteria never fed a starving child.
mark
Check Hansen's bank accounts for incoming cash from Algore. If improprieties are found, take him out back and shoot him.
If your day job requires any kind of math skills . . . quit immediately.
Now go back to the Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion tables and try again. You failed this test.
carolyn
Twighligt Zone Message:
We are in Hell
yadda, yadda, yadda...
Kewl! I'm part of a Conspiracy.
Certainly you recognize when I've applied the formula (Degrees Celsius times 9/5 plus 32) out of context of the actual temperature for comedic effect, right?
As Mark Steyn writes in his new book, we'll all be overrun by Muslims before that oceanfront property is under water.
Yup, I have called an emergency neighborhood meeting for this weekend. subject: The Design and Building of an Ark
"I don't think Tim."
Ooops, make that "I don't think so Tim."
Nope, it slid right past me. Sorry.
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