Climate Shift Happening Sooner Than Expected: In Mere Decades, Not Centuries, Warn Scientists
New research has found that an ominous shift in the world's climate is coming earlier than was first expected, in decades rather than centuries. And this will be brought about by the rapid global warming the planet is undergoing. In the study led by the former NASA climate scientist, James Hansen, it is postulated that the precipitous shift of the Earth's climate will have staggering consequences as "ice melt, sea level rise, and superstorms."
Some years back, an agreement was reached by nations to limit global warming to two degrees Centigrade, but the recent findings, released Tuesday, give evidence that even that level of warming thought to be tolerable then would not stem an abrupt onslaught of climate change. On the other hand, the level may still prove to be dangerous based on observations, climate modeling, and paleoclimate data.
Hansen and his group of scientists contend that the tremendous rate at which society is using up fossil fuels as with burning coal, oil (including gasoline and diesel), and natural gas, and expelling heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide and methane through transportation, industries, deforestation, and generation of electricity will bring the precipitous shift.
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And although the results of the study are still controversial and bound to create some debate, most scientists would agree that humanity, it would seem, is neither doing enough nor moving fast enough to curb greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to the rising problem of global warming and climate change.
Dr. Hansen is credited with the warning he made to Congress in 1988 that global warming had already begun. At that time, climate scientists had achieved no consensus on the matter. Years later, Hansen had been proven right in his conclusion. His reputation is such that even those who are still reluctant to accept the "extraordinary" claims in his new study are saying that Hansen needs to be taken seriously.
Dr. Michael E. Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University, declares, "I think we ignore James Hansen at our peril."
Hansen's study is published in the European science journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics and was a concerted effort of 19 authors.
