It is "very likely" that human activity is the cause for climate change, scientists from over 130 countries have concluded. The graphics above illustrate their predictions on just how much global temperatures may rise over the next century.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that temperatures are most likely to rise by 1.8C-4C by 2100. But the possible range is much greater; 1.1C-6.4C. The maps above show how a range of three different scenarios will affect different parts of the planet.
The emissions scenarios, A1B, A2, B1, used to create the maps above, are based on a range of detailed economic and technological data. These versions of the future consider different population increases, fossil and alternative fuel use, and consequent CO2 increases.
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Over a century and a half ago, Chief Seattle, (yes, after whom the City in which Microsoft and Bill Gates lives is named) one of the greatest North American aboriginal leaders, who was a Chief of the Squamish nation tried to pass on the millenia of wisdom of his people when he told the white settlers:
"Teach your children what we have taught ours, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children."
Have we despoilt the inheritance of all future generations? Is the punishment the potential endangerment of the species of home sapiens?
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Global warming to last for 1,000 years: report
CTV.ca News Staff
Humans have already left such a deep footprint on the environment that the effects of global warming will last for the next 1,000 years, according to a draft copy of a new report.
The Globe and Mail obtained an early version of the climate change study being prepared by the world's leading scientists, and reported that little doubt remains that the planet is getting hotter.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will release the report on Friday at a news conference in Paris, while a simultaneous conference will be held in Ottawa.
The report says heat waves, droughts and rain storms, as well as violent typhoons and hurricanes, will become more frequent.
The report paints a startling picture of the effects of climate change and says evidence of the phenomenon is now "unequivocal."
It says human influence on the atmosphere during the 21st century alone will propel global warming for another 1,000 years, based on estimates of how long it will take nature to clean the air of gases that contribute to climate change.
Among the other findings, the report states that the last half-century was probably the hottest in at least the past 1,300 years. And in 11 of the past 12 years, temperatures were among the highest since the 1850s, when accurate temperature measurements were first set down.
"Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, melting of snow and ice, and rising sea level," says the draft. The document is being reviewed in Paris.
It is the fourth report to be issued by the group of 2,000 global experts organized by the UN, including many from Canada.
The first report was issued in 1990. Since then, the panel's stance on global warming -- and the notion that it is being brought on in large part by deforestation, large scale agriculture and burning of fossil fuels -- has become more established.
The IPPC's first report suggested global warming might be under way. In 1995, the second report said it was likely that global warming was happening. In 2001, the third report suggested scientists were pretty sure human behaviour was impacting the climate.
But the tone of the newest report suggests there's nothing left to argue and climate change is now a stark reality.
Evidence of the phenomenon is being seen almost everywhere on the planet, from mountain tops, where glaciers are shrinking, to the bottom of the oceans, where average water temperatures are increasing as far as 3,000 metres below the surface.
The strong tone of the IPCC report should eliminate any lingering doubts that global warming is really happening, say some environmentalists who are calling on politicians to take more drastic action to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
"There is no more reason to delay," John Bennett, spokesman for the Climate Action Network Canada told The Globe. "We need the policies, regulations, and programs to reduce emissions and we need to do it with the same kind of urgency that we would use to fight a war."
The draft predicts the following developments will occur as the ongoing results of global warming:
Arctic and Antarctic sea ice will continue to shrink and late summer sea ice in the Arctic could disappear almost entirely by the latter part of the 21st century;
Droughts, along with heat waves and storms involving heavy precipitation will continue to become more common;
There will be fewer hurricanes, but the ones that do develop will be more powerful;
The planet's temperatures in 2090-99 are likely to be 1.7 degrees to 4 degrees warmer than the period from 1980-1999;
According to current predictions, global warming of 1.9 to 4.6 degrees would lead to a near-complete elimination of the Greenland ice sheet and a rise in sea levels of about 7 metres, if sustained for millennia.
