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Thread: Global Warn(m)ing.

  1. #1
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    Default Global Warn(m)ing.

    Countdown to global catastrophe
    Climate change: report warns point of no return may be reached in 10 years, leading to droughts, agricultural failure and water shortages
    By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
    24 January 2005


    The global warming danger threshold for the world is clearly marked for the first time in an international report to be published tomorrow - and the bad news is, the world has nearly reached it already.

    The countdown to climate-change catastrophe is spelt out by a task force of senior politicians, business leaders and academics from around the world - and it is remarkably brief. In as little as 10 years, or even less, their report indicates, the point of no return with global warming may have been reached.

    The report, Meeting The Climate Challenge, is aimed at policymakers in every country, from national leaders down. It has been timed to coincide with Tony Blair's promised efforts to advance climate change policy in 2005 as chairman of both the G8 group of rich countries and the European Union.

    And it breaks new ground by putting a figure - for the first time in such a high-level document - on the danger point of global warming, that is, the temperature rise beyond which the world would be irretrievably committed to disastrous changes. These could include widespread agricultural failure, water shortages and major droughts, increased disease, sea-level rise and the death of forests - with the added possibility of abrupt catastrophic events such as "runaway" global warming, the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, or the switching-off of the Gulf Stream.

    The report says this point will be two degrees centigrade above the average world temperature prevailing in 1750 before the industrial revolution, when human activities - mainly the production of waste gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), which retain the sun's heat in the atmosphere - first started to affect the climate. But it points out that global average temperature has already risen by 0.8 degrees since then, with more rises already in the pipeline - so the world has little more than a single degree of temperature latitude before the crucial point is reached.

    More ominously still, it assesses the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere after which the two-degree rise will become inevitable, and says it will be 400 parts per million by volume (ppm) of CO2.

    The current level is 379ppm, and rising by more than 2ppm annually - so it is likely that the vital 400ppm threshold will be crossed in just 10 years' time, or even less (although the two-degree temperature rise might take longer to come into effect).

    "There is an ecological timebomb ticking away," said Stephen Byers, the former transport secretary, who co-chaired the task force that produced the report with the US Republican senator Olympia Snowe. It was assembled by the Institute for Public Policy Research in the UK, the Centre for American Progress in the US, and The Australia Institute.The group's chief scientific adviser is Dr Rakendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

    The report urges all the G8 countries to agree to generate a quarter of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025, and to double their research spending on low-carbon energy technologies by 2010. It also calls on the G8 to form a climate group with leading developing nations such as India and China, which have big and growing CO2 emissions.

    "What this underscores is that it's what we invest in now and in the next 20 years that will deliver a stable climate, not what we do in the middle of the century or later," said Tom Burke, a former government adviser on green issues who now advises business.

    The report starkly spells out the likely consequences of exceeding the threshold. "Beyond the 2 degrees C level, the risks to human societies and ecosystems grow significantly," it says.

    "It is likely, for example, that average-temperature increases larger than this will entail substantial agricultural losses, greatly increased numbers of people at risk of water shortages, and widespread adverse health impacts. [They] could also imperil a very high proportion of the world's coral reefs and cause irreversible damage to important terrestrial ecosystems, including the Amazon rainforest."

    It goes on: "Above the 2 degrees level, the risks of abrupt, accelerated, or runaway climate change also increase. The possibilities include reaching climatic tipping points leading, for example, to the loss of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets (which, between them, could raise sea level more than 10 metres over the space of a few centuries), the shutdown of the thermohaline ocean circulation (and, with it, the Gulf Stream), and the transformation of the planet's forests and soils from a net sink of carbon to a net source of carbon."
    26 January 2005 12:28

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    http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...p?story=603975
    I'm driving down my way to digest yesterday
    Under rain clouds towards the sundown to be devoured
    And then come out alive
    Dripping wet but purified
    Ready to bear the memories of golden hours

  2. #2
    Ξυδόμπαρμπας Raven Lord's Avatar
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    δε νομίζω να μπορούμε να κάνουμε και πολλά πια...
    Rock or Nothing

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    Spider Jerusalem Deggial's Avatar
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    Ε, μωρέ, θα κάνουμε terraforming στον Άρη (περιμένω τους συνομωσιολόγους να πεταχτούν να πουν πως ήδη γίνεται ).
    No trees were killed to send this message, but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

  4. #4
    Ξυδόμπαρμπας Raven Lord's Avatar
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    εγώ πιστεύω πως το φαινόμενο του θερμοκηπίου δημιουργείται από εξωγήινους που ζουν σε ένα θερμότερο πλανήτη και θέλουν να προσαρμόσουν τις γήινες συνθήκες στις ανάγκες τους με σκοπό τον μελλοντικό εποικισμό (c)...

    Rock or Nothing

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    H' apla apo mia fylh terastiwn mprokolwn pou 8eloun na apoikisoun sthn gh
    I'm driving down my way to digest yesterday
    Under rain clouds towards the sundown to be devoured
    And then come out alive
    Dripping wet but purified
    Ready to bear the memories of golden hours

  6. #6
    Senior Member freak brother's Avatar
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    kai prin apo 10 xronia ta idia legane
    σηκωσες λιγο την μπλουζιτσα και υποψιαστηκα οτι εισαι ο φρικ. Σε λιγα δευτερολεπτα ειχα μαθει την τραγικη αληθεια.Δεν ξερω αν προσεξες την απογοητευση στo προσωπο μου..
    http://stresss.deviantart.com
    http://www.myspace.com/posteke
    Yesterday 19:29 <menumission> de mporeis na kaneis ignore ton eauto sou sto tsat molis to dokimasa

    στο θεωρητικό παρκούρ δίνω οστά και σάρκα,απο εμπόδιο σ΄ εμπόδιο πετάγομαι για πλάκα Άκου τον Φόρη and don't worry

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    314222 Mitsmann's Avatar
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    Αν ειναι αληθεια ομως δε θα προλαβουν να τα ξαναπουν σε αλλα δεκα, χοχοχο...
    "Τι χτυπαω??"

    "Ενα μονο με ελιες. Και ενα μονο με πατατες."

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    Senior Member NuC's Avatar
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    mou fenete diskolo na prolavoume EMEIS kati dramatiko.
    -Jesus Loves You More If You Can Drive-

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by NuC
    mou fenete diskolo na prolavoume EMEIS kati dramatiko.
    To spiti soy se ti ypsometro einai? An isxyei oti leei to ar8ro egw thn exw gamhsei pantws!!!!!
    Θες να κάνεις τη ζωή σου καλύτερη; Σβήσε τα περιττά σου mp3 (και προιόντα συναφών απωλεστικών ή μη αλγορίθμων).

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    Senior Member NuC's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Nerd
    Quote Originally Posted by NuC
    mou fenete diskolo na prolavoume EMEIS kati dramatiko.
    To spiti soy se ti ypsometro einai? An isxyei oti leei to ar8ro egw thn exw gamhsei pantws!!!!!
    tin palevw.
    -Jesus Loves You More If You Can Drive-

  11. #11
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    Mhn pistevete ta panta gia to global warming.
    You know you're in for a good time when there's a polar bear - bleeding - on the label.

  12. #12
    鬼目 jimid's Avatar
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    That article made me feel depressed
    "Duty is heavier than a mountain, death lighter than a feather"

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by jimid
    That article made me feel depressed
    The politics of fear. + Mhn pistevete ta panta gia to global warming.
    You know you're in for a good time when there's a polar bear - bleeding - on the label.

  14. #14
    鬼目 jimid's Avatar
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    Otan mpw irc to vradaki na mou to eksigiseis auto to teleutaio se parakalw
    "Duty is heavier than a mountain, death lighter than a feather"

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    Next to Nothing Panoramix_Miraculix's Avatar
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    eytyxws menw ston 2o.
    "I want to dance", she said and quickly turned away.
    "Well then", he said, "will you dance with me today?"

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