Sep 25 2009

Climate Changes

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Climate researchers now say the global thermometer will rise an average of more than 6 degrees F over the rest of the century even if countries around the world follow through on their promises to slash emissions, according to a new forecast released by the United Nations Environment Program. Such warming is double what many scientists and policymakers say the world can sustain without catastrophic consequences.

Satellite observations show severe thinning of glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica--as much as 30 feet per year along parts of the coast of Antarctica. "It's the way that some ice sheets in the past--at the end of the last ice age--appear to have collapsed and caused very rapid sea level rise," said Hamish Pritchard, lead author of the study published in Nature.

The Environmental Protection Agency has ruled that large emitters of carbon pollution--about 10,000 facilities that emit the equivalent of more than 25,000 tons per year of carbon dioxide--must begin collecting and reporting their emissions data. The EPA has threatened to begin regulating carbon pollution if Congress fails to act on climate legislation.

The United Nations' climate chief, Yvo de Boer, this week praised China for surpassing the United States in plans for energy efficiency, renewable power, vehicle emissions standards and shutdowns of dirty plants. "China and India have announced very ambitious national climate change plans. In the case of China, so ambitious that it could well become the front-runner in the fight to address climate change," de Boer said. "The big question mark is the U.S."

European officials who gathered in New York this week for climate talks also expressed dismay at slow action by the United States to address global warming. However, Senator Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., says she hopes to kick off hearings on climate legislation next week before the Environment and Public Works Committee.

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