CLIMATE CHANGE:

IT’S WORSE THAN YOU THINK

We have heard a lot about climate change and the need to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO₂. Although we are told that climate change will lead to an increase in floods, droughts and hurricanes, many people assume that the changes will be very slow and, for people living in cold climates, they could mean some nice warm weather.

But the threats of climate change are much worse than most people imagine. There is a real risk that rising temperatures could spiral out of control and reach levels that would wipe out the majority of species on the planet, including the human species:

•  CO₂ in the atmosphere has risen sharply since industrialisation to a level that has probably not been exceeded for at least 20 million years. This is likely to mean substantial rises in global temperatures^[1] (although changes in ocean currents may cause some local cooling^[2]).

• As temperatures rise, soils will cease to absorb CO₂ as they do now and will start to release it. As forests die, they will stop absorbing CO₂ and will release it as they burn or decay. These increases in CO₂ will accelerate rising temperatures.^[3][4]

•  Rising temperatures may also cause methane to be released from the vast deposits of methane hydrates that exist at the bottom of the sea—and also from melting permafrost. Since methane is about 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO₂, release of methane would cause further increases in temperature leading to the release of more methane in a positive feedback loop or vicious circle.^[5][6][7]

• There have been several mass extinctions in the geological history of the world and some of them appear to have been caused by runaway global warming.^[8][9]

• These things may happen much sooner and much more quickly than many people imagine. On several occasions in the past, the world’s climate has changed dramatically and abruptly in the space of a few years.^[10][11]

Given these risks, there is an urgent need for large cuts in emissions of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases. This must be the very highest priority for the world.

The UK Government’s aim of cutting CO₂ emissions by 60% by the year 2050 is welcome but deeper cuts are needed, and sooner.

The rejection of the Kyoto Protocol by the USA and their totally inadequate policies for reducing their huge and growing emissions of CO₂ are a recipe for disaster.

THE THREATS OF CLIMATE CHANGE: QUOTES

“The ultimate concern is that if runaway global warming occurred, temperatures could spiral out of control and make our planet uninhabitable.... this is the first time that a species has been at risk of generating its own demise.… The dinosaurs dominated the earth for 160 million years. We are in danger of putting our future at risk after a mere quarter of a million years.” Michael Meacher, UK Minister for the Environment 1997-2003, The Guardian, 14 February 2003.

“… the impacts of global warming are such that I have no hesitation in describing it as a ‘weapon of mass destruction’”. Sir John Houghton, former chief executive of the UK Meteorological Office and co-chair of the Scientific Assessment Working Group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, The Guardian, 28 July 2003. (emphasis added).

“If today’s warming continues and deep-sea temperatures cross the threshold at which methane hydrates melt, huge amounts of methane could be released, triggering drastic global warming.” Jeff Hecht, New Scientist, 7 December 2002.

“If a qualitative climate change were to occur suddenly in the coming century—within less than 10 years—as has happened many times before in geological history, we may already have written our epitaph.” Jeremy Rifkin, President of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington DC, The Guardian, 1 March 2002.

“Lost forest cover, decaying vegetation and overheated soils are expected to release as much as 77 gigatonnes of carbon into the atmosphere. This will raise global temperatures significantly more than the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts to date…The battle to get greenhouse gas levels under control ought to be treated as global priority number one.” Tam Dalyell MP, New Scientist, 7 February 2003 (emphasis added).

“… in a world without deep emissions reductions, warming will kill many tropical forests in the second half of the twenty-first century, returning vast quantities of carbon to the atmosphere. This would run the risk of tipping the world into runaway global warming.” Jeremy Leggett, The Carbon War, 2001, p. 323.

Campaign against Climate Change

www.campaigncc.org

Last updated: 2006-07-13 (ISO 8601)