If there is one name synonymous with climate science it is Dr. James Hansen, seen as the Godfather of the science. It was Hansen, the former NASA scientist, who famously told Congress back in 1988 to “stop waffling” because “the greenhouse effect is here and is affecting our climate now.”
sea-level rise
10% of Population Will be Affected by Sea-Level Rise
Only a week to go and the climate sceptics seem to be popping up everywhere, trying to undermine the Copenhagen conference. But what they can’t stop is the damning new credible scientific evidence that is being produced. One such study is from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). The SCAR study was undertaken by … Read More
Expect Catastrophic Warming in Your Life-Time …
A 4 C rise and counting. By 2060. That is the message from the UK Met Office in a study prepared for the British Government. Unless there is a radical action on carbon emissions, a catastrophic four degree rise in centigrade (7.2 F) could happen in many people’s live-times. That is five decades before most … Read More
The Nile Delta: “We are going underwater”
I am used to writing about the problems of oil and the Niger Delta with its vortex of violence and vulnerability to climate change. But what about another equally important Delta of Africa: the Nile, arguably once the world’s most famous river. It too is beginning to suffer from the creeping consequences of our changing … Read More
Copenhagen: Australia Accused of Selling-out Pacific Islands
Australia has been accused of watering down demands for radical action at the Pacific Islands States conference, that has just finished in Cairns, Australia. At the start of the conference the Pacific Island states were demanding a 45 per cent cut by 2020 and 85 per cent by 2050.
I am hearing only bad news…
Does anyone remember the song written by the pop group, Latin Quarter, called “Radio Africa”, written in the mid-eighties whose repeated starting line was “I am hearing only bad news on Radio Africa”? That song came back to my mind reading the reports from the climate conference in Copenhagen. I am hearing only bad news … Read More
Its Serious Science Versus the Sceptics
It’s a tale of two conferences in two cities that are both on the science of climate change. One we should take seriously, the other one we should not. One is stacked full of thousands of reputable climate scientists, the other the same old, predominantly right-wing corporate funded climate sceptics with a discredited and out-dated … Read More
Sea-Level Rise to “Substantially Exceed” Projections
Continuing the theme of volatile trends, yesterday’s news was that the Arctic was melting much faster than previously predicted. Today’s news, not surprisingly, is that sea level rise will “substantially exceed” previous estimates. The latest estimates are that it could rise 150 cm this Century.
Paradise Lost
Thirteen years ago today, the world watched in horror as a brutal military dictatorship executed Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists. Ken and the others were fighting against Shell for a greater share of the oil waealth that was being drilled from their land, but more importantly they were fighting for clean air, water … Read More
Sea-Level Rise Could Wipe Out Bangladesh by 2100
Sea levels could rise by up to one-and-a-half metres by the end of this century, according to new scientific research. The new analysis comes from a UK/Finnish team which has built a computer model linking temperatures to sea levels for the last two millennia. “For the past 2,000 years, the [global average] sea level was … Read More