Global warming is human-caused, and will likely lead to rising sea levels and fierce storms over the next decades and centuries, according to the U.N. climate change panel. Credit: iStockphoto
PARIS: Humans are to blame for global warming and its effects could be unstoppable for centuries to come, according to the U.N. climate change panel.
A report released on Friday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – the world’s premier scientific authority on global warming – predicted increasingly intense storms, heat waves and heavy rains in the decades to come.
The Earth’s average surface temperature will likely increase between 1.8°C and 4°C and sea levels will rise between 18 cm and 59 cm by 2100, the report said.
The impact of pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere will cause serious climate disruptions “for more than a millennium,” the IPCC said. The exhaustive study by 2,500 scientists from more than 100 countries sounded alarms about the impact of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere, and is designed to help policy makers.
Sea rises, the report notes, are predicted to shrink both the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps, and in some projections “Arctic late summer ice disappears almost entirely by the latter part of the 21st century.”
It is likely that that future tropical cyclones – similar to the one that devastated New Orleans – will become more intense, with large peak wind speeds and heavy precipitation, it said.
Britain’s environment minister, David Miliband, said the report confirmed “concerns that the window of opportunity to avoid dangerous climate change is closing more quickly than previously thought.”
Environmental pressure groups responded by calling for urgent international action to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Friends of the Earth said the world now faced a “crisis,” and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) conservation group said governments must now “slash emissions”. Greenpeace warned the “window for action is narrowing fast”.
“The IPCC report embodies an extraordinary scientific consensus that climate change is already upon us and that human activities are the cause,” said WWF International director general James Leape.
“It is a clarion call to governments to act urgently to slash emissions,” he added in a statement.
Jan Kowalzig, climate and energy campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said, “The IPCC report scientifically confirms the extent of this man-made crisis already hitting people around the world and makes bleak predictions for the future.” He added: “We can no longer afford to ignore growing and compelling warnings from the world’s leading experts.”
WWF said governments must ensure the next U.N. Climate Conference, set for Bali, Indonesia, in December, is a success. Hans Verolme, head of the WWF global climate change programme, said it must set a “tight time frame for negotiating new cuts in emissions within a next Kyoto Agreement that will also promote clean investments.”
Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner, Stephanie Tunmore, called the IPCC report a “screaming siren” of a warning. “The good news is our understanding of the climate system and our impact on it has improved immensely. The bad news is that the more we know, the more precarious the future looks,” Tunmore said.
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I think it is humans fault for global warming, for polluting the air, throwing trash on too the side walk, everybody dose it everyday and it affects our mother earth. One day she’s going to bite us back in the ass and were the ones thats gonna be thing “why”. if we all join together. We could make a diffrence, we could stomp over everything and make it better. But we dont because i think some of use are the shy ones and cant speak for themselfs. Thats why its called”‘FREEDOM OF SPEECH” people. Its the only thing that we have and could make a difference. think of Martin Luther King Jr. He stood up and look at what changed.so why cant we do the same. “THINK ABOUT THIS FOR A MOMENT”
BY AMBER.
If we all band together maybe we could teach Amber some spelling and grammar…
All the time, bleak, bleak, bleak. It will just be different, not bleak. Bleak would be fimbul winter, like an ancient Norse fear. This will just be very different, with lots of Bangladeshi’s moving, Pacific Islands disappearing, and water in the basement of the Federal Reserve in New York. The fork trucks that move around the bullion will have to have flotation devices. Big deal, we humans are adaptable, we will just move to where the food is, just like the Palestinians, and Ethiopians.
Um Amber….. ice crystals have a big affect and so do sun spots. Remeber the ice age??? That’s when there was no sun spots. NOw sciebtist are seeing a lot of them. The more the sunspots the hotter the Earth. Sure burning fosial fuels has a porportion of polluting, but it’s just helping global warming not starting it! What your saying is farting and burping is making the Earth hotter… let’s not blame us. If your going to blame us completely read somme articals and study it first then tell me what you think.
Most of the CO2 emissions are from things like oceans, volcanoes and cows. But maybe our contribution to CO2 emissions pushed the global temperature over the edge making sea levels rise and ice caps melting.
Global warming is our fault alone?
In recent years, the scenario of future global environment is haunting the man as the present environmental changes( e.g. global warming) pose considerable danger to his own existence and environment. He is presently struggling to understand as to what will be the nature and extent of these changes in the next hundred years.
Are we responsible for this changes – to some extent yes. But we can’t totally blame mankind for these changes. If we analyze the back geological imprints recorded on the rocks we find that our earth passed through different global warming (greater than today) and global cooling (ice age) phases which killed off a broad spectrum of faunas at all latitudes. The consequence of the mass extinction was that there were only few survivors among those, which made come back after the crisis was over. Earlier too there was sea level rise greater than today. So its not recent phenomenon.
The examples of changes of global environment and the associated mass extinction in the geological past clearly indicate that ecosystem is quite sensitive to the environment changes and has capacity to re-grow.
Today climate change is natural but is being triggered by the human beings by different ways. If man made factors are added to the natural changing environments the ecosystem may be damaged beyond repair. So human beings can not be blamed alone for present global warming.
Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi
Geologist
Ranchi, India.
Rch_nitishp@sancharnet.in
global warming is a natural phenomenon, it would happen even if humans werent here. a cow releases just as much methane into the air in one day as a car does…now, picture the world with tons of cows, because there are no humans to slauter them for meat and leather and other goods, what about all that methane straight from thier butts?! its not just us, how do you know the suns rays arent getting stronger by the decade? or every year we orbit around the sun, we are moving closer to it?
global warming is a natural phenomenon, it would happen even if humans werent here. a cow releases just as much methane into the air in one day as a car does…now, picture the world with tons of cows, because there are no humans to slauter them for meat and leather and other goods, what about all that methane straight from thier butts?! its not just us, how do you know the suns rays arent getting stronger by the decade? or every year we orbit around the sun, we are moving closer to it?
global warming is our fault ddduuuuuuhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If it is not our fault why is god doing this it has to be our fault ddddddddddddduuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thats ridicules its a natural phenomana. just 20 or30 years ago everyone was saying were gonna go spiraling into an ice age!!! and that never happenend!!! yall have no proof but we have plenty of proof to back up the fact that it is a natural phenomana! and that it will stop in a matter of years and damages wont be permanant!!!!!
GLOBAL WARMING IS COMPLETELY AND ENTIRELY OUR FAULT AND IF WE DON’T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT, IT WILL JUST GET WORSE AND WORSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
there are many debates as to whether humans are to blame when it comes to global warming or not. think about it this way.
if there were no factories, no smoke coming out of cars, etc do you think we would have the problem of global warming. of course, im not sugessting that we cut back on all of these things but we could help our environment in a lot of ways.
use public transport instead of your cars once in a while, walk even. one thing i am happy about is that australia has now joined the kyoto protocol. maybe we’ll see a change now!!
I honestly have to say that I think that global warming is our fault. Our cars, our factories, large farms. Cars=pollution, factories=pollution, and large farms=methane gas from the animals waste. The cargo ships that sail the ocean put pollution into the water, killing fish and other sea creatures, not to mention the plants that keep the sea creatures alive. Sometimes boats anchors hurt the coral. This is resulting in the faster degrading of the coral. As it degrades, it releases methane gas that also kills sea creatures and plants. Garbage, not just food waste, but items like plastic bags in landfills. They degrade as time wears on. What do you think this releases into the atmosphere? More methane gases. Do you think that we can stop this from happening? We can’t stop it but we certainly can help. Recycle plastic bags, don’t throw them away. Same with cardboard and cans. When it’s warm outside, walk or ride a bike to places that aren’t to far away. Plant a garden, it helps with the atmosphere. I’m sorry if I have offended anyone, or made anyone upset. I am only stating my thoughts and facts that I have learned. You don’t have to listen to them, or even read them if you don’t wish to.
Shantelle Beasley, Age 14, Sandpoint High School
1.) 150 billion tons of co2 is cycled between the earth and the atmosphere natural (i.e. oceans vegetation)
2.) 5 billion tons of co2 is put in the atmosphere by humans
3.)that is what?…..5% 10%?
4.) the glacial melting needs to happen in order to let water evaporate and replenish the caps
5.) warming periods and cold periods have happened before (about every 1,500 years) in history and warming periods are not as bad as cold
6.)now hate on me
someones got it finally
Government and other organizations invest a lot of money on research for global warming and climate changes. But the question is, can we really stop these things from happening? I will answer: NO!
God knows how many times this had happen in the past million years and yet people are wasting time and money to try and prevent this from happening. Are you really up to that? I am so sick and tired of watching and listening to advertisements and campaigns on climate changes and to other people, this does not make any sense. If you are an average person earning just enough for your family and to pay some bills, would you really put your effort to try and prevent global warming as your top priority? I would worry about the food we have to take everyday, rather than this stupid campaign to stop global warming. You can’t stop it anyway so why worry? It is not our fault because to me it is a natural process. Why don’t these goverment officials and other rich organizations/people who invest their money a lot on research in global warming just help the poor people who don’t have shelter to warm them and no food to eat?
MyJourney 2008
global warming isint all our fault ! the sun warms the earth and the balance sometimes gets off. it is though only partly our fault because we went overboard w/ machines and not recycleing but it is not all our fault.
its not entiarly our fault nature has something to do w/ it. duh.
we do thigs everyday to what we call earth and ppl might think your not polluting the earth but you are because i bet you all drive a car to work all have thrown a piece of paper on the ground and yes we can make a difference if ppl would take the time to listen and really understand what is happing in the world and whenn your walking on that side walk pick up that piece of paper and do the right thing and this stuff is coming straight form an 12 year old hahahaha so of you ppl r dumb
I’m twelve. And I am not going to say I know everything. Or even half of everything. But I’m not saying I’m stupid.
Some of these comments people are leaving make these people look like fools. If you going to leave a comment, and try to sound smart don’t say “Ur” and “U” and other abreviations. It makes you sound awfully ignorant.
Anyways about Global Warming. In some ways it is our fault, some ways it isn’t. Well its what I think, we’ve been talking about it at school. What I must know is, why point fingers? What help is that?
Anyways, just thought I’d put out my thoughts on this. And if anyone wants to tell me why we need to point fingers that’d be great, because I don’t ask questions for no reason thank you very much ( :
-Abby
don’t be rude. many people struggle with spelling and grammar their whole life, even with being taught many times.
then do something
to much of anything is not good
I think that you are wrong, i think that it is just what is
meant to happen, and that it woul have happened anyways!
Global warming might cause not only because of us might be some other factors also….But lets come together and do what we can do to save the mother EARTH!!! This might increase the earths age than what it is predicted or expected as of today…!!!
though “Anyways” is acceptable grammar?; “stones” and “glass houses” come to mind…
Amber is an idiot about the whole trash thing polluting our air and causing global warming. How the carbon dioxide cycle works is the air that animals and us breathe is put into the air and then taken in by plants. Then the plants put out oxygen thus making a cycle that can stay at a constant rate of 280ppm. This has been what it has been like since the last ice age. Now that we had fossil fuels, cars, and machinery to the picture, we have been adding 5% more carbon dioxide to the air every year PLUS tearing down forests. So while we have been taking away the stuff that filters carbon dioxide, we have also been adding extra to the air. So yes WE are to blame.
How does this article actually prove that man is not to blame?
girl you need to shut your mouth you dont know how to spell right either!!!!!!
We are the blame b/c WE are the ones who design and make cars with diesel. WE are the ones who pollute the air and throw trash on the ground. When God said that there will now be sin in the world he never said what will come. Since Adam and Eve have sinned we have to suffer along with making new sins. God isn’t to blame. WE are. If we really cared we would know how to make more things right and that trash and chemicals would be disposed properly!
by Kristen
if we dont try to stop global warming by 2015 the world in 2100 will be very chaotic. i hope we can work together to stop global warming and make the earth a great place.
right then, global warming is our fault and gordon browns. gordon brown is blind :L meeerrrrrrrr
Well, I must admit that I’m not too bothered about global warming, or who’s fault it is, (ours, the planets, aliens). I’m 38, have no kids, a good job, enough money to enjoy a decent lifestyle (because I work hard)and no real pressing need to change my ways. I do re-cycle, switch off lights etc, but thats about all.
Everything will even out in the end. Population too big? It will soon start to fall when food runs short. World warms up? Humans will adapt as they always do. World cools down? Same as above.
As I see it, climate change has become big business, and using it to scare people is a tool of various governments. The media hypes it to sell papers and companies to sell products.
So, I will keep my science interest to astro-physics and astronomy and not bother myself about global warming. I will most probably be dead before it causes any real problems anyway.
Hey no need for violence jeesh people have you ever thought this might be a little girl so leave her alone. – Kayla
Why do you people have to be so rude about it just say it in a nice way like shes wrong not oh ambers stupid sheesh leave her alone
That was stupid. for global warming is cause by us burning so much fuel. Global warming is defined as CO2 being released in our atmosphere, which traps in the heat. For, CO2 is practically a heat sponge. thats what making our world heat up. the girl, Amber, is right. and sun spots are due to the rapid deterioration of the Ozone. but thats a different story. i’m only fifteen and i can tell you dat, so get off ambers back. cause she is correct. And about this being gods plan, i am a strong believer in christ and i know he works through people. God isnt gonna come and stand in the middle of manhattan, point his fingers to the sky and cause a hurricane. He could. but he wont. he works through us. and so, how do you know that this isnt gods plan. what if he want us all? huh? how do you know? you dont. God works in strange ways and so does our planet. Chew on that.
nikkas yall chill out and stop hating on people who dnt kno how spell or wateva dey juz givin der opinion but even tho i really dnt kno alot bout the ozone business i believe that lil amber chick is ritee..many ppl are really stubborn or hard headed and yall need to understand dat jus bcuz not everythin dat is going on isnt completely our fault we can b blamed cuz littering the streets doesnt make anythinq betta!…..well deuce.
Global warming might be our fault but if you consider how big the Earth is compared to how small we are to the Earth even if everyone drove cars for the rest of the next decade it might have a small affect but it isnt all our fault but i do kind of agree with Amber…dont make fun of people who cant spell some people just have trouble with it…
Alex
you cannot even spell right my friend, too= to, dose=does, themselfs= themselves & diffrence= difference. thanks
This is completly nuts , Just face it,
If you look into it properly CO2 increases have always followed a warming of the planet ( from ice core samples).
Is warm bad? were do most tings thrive and grow, Arctic??? aaaaAntarctic??? or the Equator regions……..
’nuff said.
By: A troller near you!
Unfortunately for me the heating of the Earth will have the opposite effect. the extra water from the melted caps will destroy the gulf stream. this would make western Europe freeze, and I happen to live there (England). The equatorial regions would become deserts and wipe out species there and other places as as the migrate to were their old climate used to be. And the raised sea levels will destroy many places. For Instance Bangladesh, which already has trouble with flooding, will be completely submerged when the oceans rise potentially killing millions, and forcing many more into nearby countries.
Climate Change is natural, However we are exponentially increasing the speed at which it occurs.
Unfortunately for me the heating of the Earth will have the opposite effect. the extra water from the melted caps will destroy the gulf stream. this would make western Europe freeze, and I happen to live there (England). The equatorial regions would become deserts and wipe out species there and other places as as the migrate to were their old climate used to be. And the raised sea levels will destroy many places. For Instance Bangladesh, which already has trouble with flooding, will be completely submerged when the oceans rise potentially killing millions, and forcing many more into nearby countries.
Climate Change is natural, However we are exponentially increasing the speed at which it occurs.
troll troll troll troll troll lolo
“and sun spots are due to the rapid deterioration of the Ozone”
Hunny, do you know what a sun spot is?
*don’t
“Think about your spelling for a moment”
religious much?
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