Science & Technology

Climate Scientists 95 Percent Certain that Global Warming Is Man-Made



Reuters has gotten hold of a copy of the new report by the United Nations' Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change that aims to summarize the best scientific data with regard to the causes, effects, and trends of climate change. From Reuters:



That shifts the debate onto the extent of temperature rises and the likely impacts, from manageable to catastrophic….


Projected sea level rise by 2100 has been increased from 18 to 59 centimeters in the last report to 29 t0 82 centimeters (11.4 inches to 32.3 inches). The report also apparently backs off on the claim that warming has already made hurricanes worse. The new IPCC report will evidently try to explain why global average temperatures have been essentially flat for the past decade:



It will be very interesting to see how the new report handles the recent studies that suggest that climate sensitivity - conventionally defined as to how much warming can be expected from a doubling of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere - may be significantly less than had been earlier maintained. If those new studies are correct, that means that catastrophic warming is less likely and that humanity would have more time to address whatever problems future warming might cause.

The new IPCC Working Group 1 report on the physical sciences will be officially released on September 27.